Weather hits Horse Fair hard... yet again

A SENSE of déjà vu greeted the long-standing Millstreet Horse Fair as inclement weather surrounded the event for the third consecutive year.

The hosting was to maintain a tradition in the North Cork town, where patrons from all walks of life, from near and afar, convene for a custom dating back many generations. Horse numbers were down in Fair Field, though loyal patrons made their way from throughout the southwest Region.

However, demand, bids and offers were few and far between, and buyers were conspicous by their absence.

The overwhelming consensus was that, from an equine business point of view, the stock on parade had fallen below the standards of previous years.

The fair once upon a time provided horses for the armies of Europe and closer to home. Guinness Brewery, for example, availed of equine stock to draw their popular stout all over the country.

And for the Millstreet March Fair in days of old, many farmers of the region found the ideal opportunity to seek farm labourers for the year ahead, thus adding to the significance of the hosting.

From the past, all the trappings of the horse fair decorated the streets, with a flow with stalls of every conceivable nature.

Normally, a throng of street traders dotted the Town Square and Main Street, but last Sunday, vendors by their absence, bar a few, indicated the weather had taken its toll on the 2018 event, as did the Beast from the East 12 months earlier.

Hopefully the passage of time hasn’t failed to knock the staging of horse fair day in Millstreet, and though equine numbers were significantly reduced in 2019, indications are that, with more favourable weather, the Fair can return and offer a family day out.