Ian McDonagh, pictured recently at the Ballinasloe Horse Fair with some of the Ballydangan Irish cob mares and foals, is working on a 2017 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition project on the cures and folklores of the Irish travelling community. The aim of his project is to understand the origins of these beliefs, their popularity and continuance throughout the centuries.

Ian, a student at Merlin College, Galway, was awarded second place in the Junior Individual Category of the Biological and Ecological Sciences’ BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition last January. As a result of Ian’s great love of horses and an interest in nature and how things grow and interact together, Ian researched if there was a correlation between the phases of the lunar cycle and equine birth patterns.