Fowl play welcomed as poultry section makes full return to Balmoral

Entrants excited as bird flu restrictions lifted this year

THE chickens are coming home to roost, as poultry makes a full return to the Balmoral Show after four years in lockdown.

High levels of bird flu across the UK meant that the poultry section at Northern Ireland’s biggest agricultural show was not able to operate fully over the past few years — but now it is back in full force.

Poultry farmers like Mark Cairns are excited as they look forward to watching their chickens in competition throughout the week.

He said: “Because of bird flu in the past, we have only been allowed one person, just for disease and contamination. But because bird flu [levels] are all right this year then everyone is allowed to take their own birds and poultry with them.”

Mark is attending the show with his fiancee and their Silver Laced Wyandotte chickens, and hopes the birds will perform well in their category.

He said: “I’ve had chickens for three years now with my fiancee, Judith. I’ve always wanted to get into showing and I really enjoy having birds.

“The judge will be looking for points where the black is around the edge of their feathers, how clean they are and the colour of their legs.” Mark said poultry farmers from across the island of Ireland have come to the show this year.

He added: “There are a lot of new people that have come, there’s people that have even come from Letterkenny, so it is great for everyone to get back to it this year.”

The Balmoral Show is open to the public from Wednesday, May 15 until Saturday, May 18.

This year marks the 155th annual show, and organiser Rhonda Geary said she is excited to welcome the crowds to the fourday-long event.

“Everything is getting set up and we will be ready for an early morning start tomorrow,” she said.

Rhonda said the farming community across Northern Ireland is excited for the show: “It is a very important agricultural event — it is the largest agri-food event in the Northern Ireland calendar. It is very important for the producers, the exhibitors and the businesses that are here – we also have more than 600 food stands hoping to do business here this week.”

Rhonda is expecting to see plenty of visitors in the Eikon Centre this year and promises the show has something for everyone to enjoy.

She said: “We have a bigger show than ever this year with more than 4,000 entries in the livestock sections and trade stands, a lot of new attractions, our sustainability village, the new children’s section with the Glenarm off-road driver and a climbing wall.”

Rhonda said that due to the high volume of livestock entered in competitions this year they have even created new categories: “We have new classes in the equine section and the cattle and the sheep.”

Rhonda said there is also more food and drink for visitors to enjoy at this year’s food pavilion.

“There’s more than 100 trade stands in there, where you can sample the food and drink and watch the cookery demonstrations — so there is really just something for everyone at the Balmoral Show.”

THE High Court’s Rwanda ruling is a disaster for the DUP, and manna from Heaven for its anti-protocol opponents. Until now, their arguments against the DUP’S deal to restore devolution have been very technical and legalistic. Many grassroots unionists just aren’t tuned in.

The prospect of illegal migrants coming to Northern Ireland because we have a different laws from the rest of the UK dramatically changes that. This could well become a wedge issue for Jim Allister and Jamie

Bryson. So far meetings on the protocol have been confined to small Orange halls. On Friday night, the first outdoors one will be held as Allister, Bryson, Kate Hoey and Ben Habib address a rally in Ballyclare with three or four bands taking part.

There will be speeches about how the DUP has far from safeguarded the Union. Expect the temperature to rise with talk of how Northern Ireland is now “a magnet” for illegal immigrants who will be seeking to secure houses, jobs and health resources at the expense of local people.

The High Court ruled that large parts of the Illegal Migration Act can’t apply in Northern Ireland due to human rights protections guaranteed under the Windsor Framework. The Government is appealing the ruling. A new immigration border in the Irish Sea is dangerous territory for the DUP. Professor Jon Tonge of the University of Liverpool says: “Post-brexit arrangements with Europe, not just on trade but on human rights as well, show Northern Ireland is very much a place apart in the UK subject to different laws.

“It’s semi-detached in terms of trade, immigration and migration policy, and that is unprecedented.”

Speaking on BBC’S Good Morning Ulster on Wednesday, Gavin Robinson said a “unified” Uk-wide immigration policy should be enforced, otherwise “there is a difficulty”. The interim DUP leader urged the Government to now “step forward”. He said his party had previously tried to raise its concerns about the incompatibility of the act in Northern Ireland, but they were dismissed.

The problem for Robinson is that his predecessor, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, stood with Secretary of State Chris Heaton-harris in the splendour of Hillsborough Castle’s Throne Room three months ago and hailed his deal to restore Stormont as the best way to safeguard the Union. The TUV now has ample ammunition to attack its rival. Speaking in the Assembly on Tuesday, Allister said: “Yesterday’s judgment saw the wheels come off the DUP’S ‘Safeguarding the Union’ document that brought it back to the House.

“In that document, which the DUP brought and sold to the people of Northern Ireland, there is a blatant lie in paragraph 46, where it states: ‘the Windsor Framework applies only in respect of the trade in goods’.

“I and others told the DUP that that was not so, and now the High Court equally says that it is not so. My call to the DUP today is to disavow this Union-dismantling document. It was a contrived fable and a dangerous deceit, and it needs to be disavowed by any unionist.”

Gavin Robinson has the difficult job of walking back from claims in that document while not ditching it altogether.