https:\/\/armaghi.com\/news\/newry-news\/newry-agricultural-show-a-big-struggle-as-chairman-makes-plea-made-for-daera-funding\/274295<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe chairman of the Newry Agricultural Show has voiced his disappointment that the Department of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs (DAERA) does not provide funding for local farming shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s Newry Show, which took place on Saturday, cost an estimated \u00a332,000, with organiser\u2019s relying heavily on funding from the council and local businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brian Lockhart, Chairman of both the Newry Agricultural Show and the Northern Ireland Shows Association, stated that funding the show \u201cis difficult\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not looking for massive amounts of money, we\u2019re only looking for small amounts of money in comparison to their (DAERA) overall budget,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In May, Mr. Lockhart briefed members of the Northern Ireland Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs Committee on the need for DAERA funding for local farming shows across Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK and Ireland which does not receive government funding for farming shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet despite his lobbying efforts, Mr. Lockhart does not believe the situation will change any time soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery Minister who comes in says they\u2019re going to look at it, but they never actually do anything,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the funding concerns Saturday\u2019s Show went off without a hitch, with hundreds of people from across Northern Ireland taking part in events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mya Sloan was attending her first ever Newry Show, competing in the Valais sheep competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI love that\u2026it can give people a chance, who are a really young age\u2026to hold their sheep in front of the judge and show how much knowledge they have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Ciara Fitzpatrick, a beef farmer from Attical, the Newry Show provides an opportunity to promote her business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being awarded prizes \u201cgets your name out there to other breeders\u2026you\u2019d definitely make sales from it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd for others, attending the show is a hobby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lisa Dornan lives in North Belfast and first began farming Oxford Downs sheep on her father-in-law\u2019s farm three years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something I never thought I would do to be honest because I\u2019m from North Belfast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet even though Lisa is not a full-time farmer, her aim when competing is the same: \u201cWinning. It\u2019s nice to get the red rosette after all the work you put in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe work involved in preparing the animals for the show is substantial and can begin months in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Ciara Fitzpatrick, the preparations begin from almost the moment her cows are born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI pull out whatever my top ten calves are\u2026you put them onto a feed plan to keep them in good condition\u2026and see where we go from there coming up the shows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the lucky few that are chosen to participate, a great deal of work goes into getting them show-ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re trying to keep them clean,\u201d says Stephen Irvine, \u201cthe white goats are harder to keep clean. We would put coats on them\u2026and then bed them in fresh straw every day to try and keep them white but there\u2019s no guarantee of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Newry Show is part of the larger Northern Ireland Show circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with there being a show almost every weekend during the summer months, for most attendees, the work didn\u2019t end on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is our fourth show this year,\u201d says Jessica Magee, a pygmy goat farmer, \u201cwe\u2019re sort of halfway now\u2026we\u2019ve got Castlewellan next and Clougher Valley then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe situation is no different for Brian Lockhart. With so much money needing to be raised to make next year\u2019s show a similar success, the work starts straight away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt goes from one year to the next,\u201d he said. \u201cSo as soon as this one\u2019s over you\u2019re looking to see what you can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in the end, the work put in is worth it to keep one of Newry\u2019s oldest events alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Newry Show\u2019s been running from 1869\u2026it\u2019s part of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This article was originally published in ArmaghI on 30th June 2025. A link to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/padraigcorrigan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/padraigcorrigan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/padraigcorrigan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padraigcorrigan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padraigcorrigan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/padraigcorrigan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/padraigcorrigan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/padraigcorrigan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padraigcorrigan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padraigcorrigan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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