Insert Your Interesting Facts Here.....

mossbags wrote:Arn't you forgetting Mary Harney RMD

Not just Marengo mind you, the majority of Naopleons calvary who conquered Europe were purchased at the Ballinasloe horse fair. So there ye have it. Ye can have yer county Finals, Ballinasloe has conquered Europe.

It's a very impressive fact Moss. One of the contenders for fact of the year when we have our annual awards ceremony in City west.

This is well worth the read RMD.Navan man should read it too
We've never really recovered from the Cattle raid of Cooley here in the West if Im being honest. Danm ye Ulster

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(excellent photograph on this link)

The Nags Head

If
a visitor to Ireland chose to drive through Ballinasloe in east Galway
on the first weekend in October, they would encounter scenes straight
out of The Quiet Man. Men in cloth caps sizing up fillies. young
fellows riding bareback on horses of questionable parentage, etc. And
later on, should that visitor choose to stay for a pint in the town,
and perhaps make an ill-judged comment about Tuam, he might find
himself in a faithful recreation of the scene where Victor McLaglen and
John Wayne beat each other up and down the street. And, last but not
least, big piles of steaming horse poo.[Not that I’m suggesting that
the movie is anything other than a classic. Honest].

We live in
an era when every town and village in the country is trying to think up
a festival to attract tourists. Arts festivals seem to be a favourite.
It’s amazing how many writers or poets will turn up somewhere if you
promise (a) a free bar and (b) to actually listen to them. Ballinasloe
has no need for such flim-flammery – it has been hosting one of
Ireland’s longest-lived fairs almost continuously since the middle of
the eighteenth century, when George I awarded a charter to the Trench
family (Earl of Clancarty) to host two annual agricultural fairs.

Today,
the October Fair in Ballinasloe attracts mainly horse dealers, but it
wasn’t always like that. Frederick Trench obtained a patent for a sheep
fair in the town in 1722 (it probably helped that he owned most of the
place at the time) but it was as a cattle fair that it became
nationally known. Samuel Lewis, that great chronicle of 19th century
Ireland, noted that

'the celebrated cattle market of Ballinasloe is the greatest cattle market in the Kingdom.'

I
like to think of Ballinasloe as a natural gateway to the west - even
though there is a county of Connacht to its east (Roscommon), one
hasn't really entered the west until Ballinasloe, built on the western
side of the River Suck, a river that stretches north and fences off the
"Leinster" side of Roscommon from it's Connacht side - to the south, it
joins the Shannon, which effectively fences off the rest of the west.
The connection with cattle stretches back to the beginning of history
and legend in Ireland too. The great Irish saga An Táin Bó Cúailnge*
tells the story of how Queen Maeve of Connacht led a great army to
Ulster to steal the legendary Brown Bull of Cooley, the only rival to
her own prize white bull, only to be denied by the warrior Cúchulainn.
Legend has it that Mave's army rested near Ballinasloe on their way
north.

There is a certain irony to Lewis's account of the
Ballinasloe fair. He wrote those words in 1837, less than 10 years
before tens of thousands of people in Ballinasloe and all points west
would literally drop dead from hunger during the Great Famine. However,
even by 1800, Ballinasloe was also becoming known as a horse fair. The
Napoleonic Wars were in full swing, and the armies of Europe had many
cavalry regiments. And the insatiable demand for reliable horses led
both sides to the horse fair of Ballinasloe. In fact, Napoleon's horse
at the Battle of Waterloo, Marengo, had been purchased at the fair. In
case you're wondering, the Duke of Wellington's horse, called
Copenhagen, had been bought in Cork (at the Cahirmee fair). Wellington,
of course, once said (on being reminded of being born Irish) that being
born in a stable didn't make one a horse - grumpy old sod. Actually, I
think what really irked Arthur Wellesley was that people might think
that, having being born in Meath, people might think of him as a Navan
man. Can't say I blame him.

Back then, it was draught horses
that were in demand - big, sturdy horses that wouldn't spook under fire
and whose thunder of hooves would scare the daylights out of enemy
infantry. Nowadays, it is mainly Connemara ponies (and assorted
piebalds) that are on sale. And while plenty of horse dealers from
around the country attend each year, it is the Travellers that
constitute the biggest single group of buyers and sellers, and
contribute the most colour to the weekend. Though you're more likely to
see a Traveller driving around in a van or four-wheel drive, horses
remain central to their culture, and no horse is bought or sold before
being 'road-tested' at the fair. At the foot of St. John's Protestant
church on the hill overlooking the green, there is a stretch of tarmac.
Over the weekend, horses are raced up and down this stretch, either
hitched to jaunting cars (like the one pictured above) or ridden
bareback. The nags are driven at full pelt right up to the end of the
track, before skidding to a halt and being wheeled about and urged on
again. Beside the track, the crowd shrewdly evaluate the performance of
each animal alongside the dozens of Travellers caravans are parked on
the grass along the hill, between the church and the track. No sooner
does an rider or driver pull his steed up to a halt before a small
crowd surround him and the bargaining begins. Anyone not interested in
the horses can always pay a vist to one the many fortune tellers parked
around the green.

Very good Moss. An interesting read.

Despite what you may read or hear elsewhere, Dublin is the official capital of the Rep of Ireland.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Despite what you may read or hear elsewhere, Dublin is the official capital of the Rep of Ireland.

LIES

Bagenalstown Pitch and Putt is the only pitch and putt course in Carlow! Fact!

The melting of the ice caps will not lead to any flooding as believed..

Willie Goodison of Wexford was the only ever man to play in a Leinster Minor Final (Football) while married........