Birr castle game fair

[AlbertJ 569]

I wont be going next year to Birr fair, that's for sure....

The judge for the every man and his dog, said i should put my lurcher down, as she was too small for work and her being 22''....

I am very happy with her she does me very well..

I asked when i got their where the lurcher car park was and was tolled by a arogant twat, that their was no such thing and i had to go in the public car park, which, was miles away from the fair, being it was hot, my 2 dogs got hot walking backwards and forwards....

I also found, that the travellers that were their, were the most annoying feckers i have ever come across, the place was full of them, like the wasps....!!!

Everything was well over priced as well, we are in a resetion don't forget....

Will never, go their again....

Ballinlough was far better....

 

Blue One,

 

As most people will confirm the car parks were well signposted from each other and from all directions. I am sorry you failed to follow the correct signage. The several hundred of terrier & lurcher folks managed to find their way to Gate C quite comfortably.

 

The local Garda Supt personally approved our signposting!

We don't have 'arrogant twats' working for us at any gate and I take exception to you making this allegation. In fact if you want to throw comments like this about I would suggest that the epithet of 'twat' was more appropriate for someone who couldn't follow extensive signage.

 

The number of travellers amongst the record crowd of just under 32,000 was fairly negligible. We had a security man at each gate, 6 plus supervisor inside and over 35 stewards plus 6 garda. There were four security personnel in the terrier & lurcher field at any one time and I personally spent at least one third of my time in that area. In fact at any one time at least one of our four directors and/or the site manager was in the Mount Palmer /GateC car park area. The Garda complimented us on our overall control and stewarding of such a large attendance.

 

As you are no doubt aware it is illegal to discriminate against travellers or any group of people even if one was so inclined. It is up to people who attend any event to look after their property. I sympathise deeply with anyone who has lost their dogs as I once lost a complete litter of very well bred and valuable GSDs and a friend had his retriever of the year stolen after making it an international FTCh.

 

I will personally be happy to put up a reward for information resulting in the recovery of any stolen sporting dog through our magazine and website- It can work because when we put up such a reward last year for people taking down our posters in the Westmeath area we received excellent quality information which allowed us to identify the perpetrators.

Your allegation that everything was over priced at Birr is quite frankly a nonsense. Each stand had at least one bargain offer and most had several. PLus there was much more choice than at Ballinlough and such competition always means lower prices. I saw and took advantage of a number of real bargain buys from various stands. And of course while Ballinlough advertised 'over 180 trade stands' I have yet to meet ANYONE who saw anywhere near that number. The Ballinlough organisers also advertised that they were in partnership with CAI - CAI have denied this. WE HAD OVER 180 STANDS.

 

Traders, competitors and public who attended both fairs had absolutely no doubt which was the better fair and of course I have videos of both for those who did not attend one or other if anyone wishes to see the factual situation. As I have said I deal in facts not wild allegations.

 

You are of course entitled to your opinion no matter how misguided but it is not shared by organisations such as the NARGC,FISSTA, CAI, IFA COuntryside plus obviously the very much larger number of traders , competitors, sponsors and public involved in the Birr event. Or by the media which reported on the two events.

 

 

AlbertJ congratulation on a wonderful event, I really enjoyed my visit to the fair on Sunday. But.

 

 

I too was intimatded by the presence of the large amount of travelers that were in attendance. While one cannot discriminate against any one group of people as you rightly pointed out, they must be some form of condition written within your own rules of conduct regarding this issue. It is not acceptable that one can be the recipient of such harassment without any form of punishment. I think that you may need to reconsider you conditions regarding admittance to the fair. I did observe serval Garda on duty on the Sunday and I feel that their intervention or close observation may have helped elevate the harassment on the public.

 

 

Please receive this information as constructive criticism.

 

John

 

Thank you John and we have had many such congratulations and excellent press coverage including the front page of the Irish Times. We had an adequate security, garda and stewarding presence to cover virtually every eventuality and good garda support in reserve. BUT NO ONE REPORTED THIS ALLEGED HASSLE. As I have said we had a little trouble from travellers in the same area last year . IT WAS REPORTED AND I DEALT WITH IT MYSELF RELATIVELY QUICKLY BY EJECTING THE PERPETRATORS. Anyone who knows me will know I do not tolerate any trouble at our fairs but I can only act when it is reported and I repeat we had absolutely no reports of this problem. Indeed until I read about it this evening tthat is the first we knew about it.

 

It WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN. BUT PLEASE DO LET US KNOW IF YOU SEE ANYTHING UNTOWARD AND WE WILL DEAL WITH IT IMMEDIATELY.

 

Albert

[AlbertJ 569]

Good God - sorry to hear about your pup Carraghsgem - glad now I didn't travel down - my young fella wanted to take down his new 10 wk old pup and no doubt it would have been stolen off him and he may have copped a couple of thumps too defending it.

 

Not sure what else to say other than organisers should also bring about seperate security for the dog area (doormen with batons and shockers).

 

Funny didn't hear of any throuble at Ballinlough other than the whippet left behind and didn't see any tinkers/gippos or travellers at the Antrim show (nor the need for police either).

 

Carraghsgem - sorry again

 

Won't be making plans for Birr either next year. No excuse for these sort of complaints.

 

 

Apart from Carraghgem who did report the theft but quite a bit after it happended we had NO reports of any such problems on the days. As you say we do not tolerate any trouble at Shanes or anywhere else but cannot deal with problenms if they are not reported.

 

Much as we would like to deal with trouble in the manner you suggested it is now extremely illegal but quite a crowd did see me dealing firmly and immediately with a reported complaint in the same area last year BUT the difference is that it was reported.

 

I visited the terrier & lurcher area three times on Sunday and the wider Gate C area around 8 times in total on Sunday and did not see any such activity as that alleged. I am not saying it did not happen but it cannot have been as widespread as has been implied as I did not see it nor did any of our stewards, the garda or security personnel AND apart from Carraghem's report there was NO OTHER report of any trouble whatsover.

 

AlbertJ

 

 

 

Albert J

[AlbertJ 569]

Good God - sorry to hear about your pup Carraghsgem - glad now I didn't travel down - my young fella wanted to take down his new 10 wk old pup and no doubt it would have been stolen off him and he may have copped a couple of thumps too defending it.

 

Not sure what else to say other than organisers should also bring about seperate security for the dog area (doormen with batons and shockers).

 

Funny didn't hear of any throuble at Ballinlough other than the whippet left behind and didn't see any tinkers/gippos or travellers at the Antrim show (nor the need for police either).

 

Carraghsgem - sorry again

 

Won't be making plans for Birr either next year. No excuse for these sort of complaints.

now thatll be the day that man has an excuse for everything his first posts about the show slated another fair,but thats ok he had 180 stands NOT

id still like to know why i had to pay 5 euro and the lad from the north parked beside me payed 3 sterling as the last time i checked they were near the same ?

why was the lurcher judge not in for dog of the day?

700 lurcher people at 15 ahead plus 5 euro a class per dog =A NICE DAYS PAY

BUT THEY MAKE NO MONEY albert i went to your show and on the grand scale of it had a good enough day but for you to start slating any show it boils my p*ss{woops there i go letting my common lurcher keeping self out again}ive been 3 years running and heard and seen most of it all before.its a good enough day out but when you run others down you undo that good luck signed Dee mc carthy

 

Dee

What a lot of complaints!

 

I did not slate another show I simply stated the facts about the Ballinlough show.There is a world of difference between stating accurate facts and unfair criticism. My response on the other show was to someone who claimed that the other show was better.

 

I thought he/she may have been misled by the advertising about the other show and wanted to correct him/her.

 

Facts are : Ballinlough advertised 'over 180 stand'. Do you think it is a good idea to apparently inflate people's expectations? Did you see 180 trade stands at Ballinlough. It was also advertised as being in partnership with CAI - CAI have confirmed it was not. Now are you saying you agree with apparently inaccurate advertising and claims?

 

If someone inaccurately claimed their dog was faster or better than yours would you not seek to correct the claim?

 

I make no apology for drawing attention to apparently inaccurate promotion of events as I think they tarnish the public's perception of all game fairs.

 

Your count on the lurchers is information to me - I do not take anything to do with setting entry not take anything from them - that goes to the clubs.

 

And when one gives over approxmately one quarter of our main internal car parking field and provides exceptional prizes etc I can assure you if we wished we could get a much better return by NOT having lurchers at the events.

 

AlbertJ

 

PS I don't think any large event is any place for a 10 week old pup!

Edited August 31, 2010 by AlbertJ

[jigsaw 11,809]

Albert j I realise you tried your best to cover all eventualitys on the day but it did not come up to scratch in my eyes anyway.As for not reporting it,hand on heart I didnt see anyone walking about that could be percieved to be security,they must have been UNDERCOVER.In fairness,all day long there were drove of travellers causing hell.I was accosted by them and while they did so I could see a friend of mine geting the same treatment from another herd of them.It was going on wholesale,if you didnt spot it you werent around the terrier ring very long or they were so afraid of your presence they scarpered when they saw you coming,I understand its a hard task runing a huge show like this but it fell short of VISIBLE security in my opinion.If you read back on this topic,look at ALL the same storys from those who attended it,EERYONE THINKS THERE WASNT ENOUGH VISIBLE STEWARDS/SECURITY THERE,end of.i think youve lost a hell of a lot of support from the dog people that attended,which will have a detremental effect on attendance next year as like a ''chineese whisper'' BAD NEWS TRAVELLS FAST''I reported the shite carry on the minute I came across a steward,that was when i was exiting the show 2-3 hrs earlier than I would have liked.You mention the traveller numbers were of a small perportion on the whole compared to the numbers of people that attended,well as small as their numbers were,there was plenty enough of them to piss the ferk out of decent hunting people that traveled 2-3 or even 4 hrs to attend the show.NOT GOOD ENOUGH.You have highlighted on numerous occasions through this topic that ''no one reported any thing to anyone''POSSIBLY BECAUSE WE COULDNT FIND ANYONE TO REPORT TO?Anyway I wont nor will my son be attending this show again,a lot of my friends fom all over the country have the same view,shoddy security.Being realistic,everyone I conversed with all spoke of the crap going on.Some had no hassle as they had no dogs with them.IT WAS QUIET VISIBLE TO ANYONE NEAR THE RING THAT THE TRAVELLERS WERE A PROBLEM.I conclude from this point that your security were not very near the ring at all or they didnt want to know.you can debate about the fact no one reported it all night/day long,bottom line.....theres were not enough visible stewards present.

[AlbertJ 569]

Albert j I realise you tried your best to cover all eventualitys on the day but it did not come up to scratch in my eyes anyway.As for not reporting it,hand on heart I didnt see anyone walking about that could be percieved to be security,they must have been UNDERCOVER.In fairness,all day long there were drove of travellers causing hell.I was accosted by them and while they did so I could see a friend of mine geting the same treatment from another herd of them.It was going on wholesale,if you didnt spot it you werent around the terrier ring very long or they were so afraid of your presence they scarpered when they saw you coming,I understand its a hard task runing a huge show like this but it fell short of VISIBLE security in my opinion.If you read back on this topic,look at ALL the same storys from those who attended it,EERYONE THINKS THERE WASNT ENOUGH VISIBLE STEWARDS/SECURITY THERE,end of.i think youve lost a hell of a lot of support from the dog people that attended,which will have a detremental effect on attendance next year as like a ''chineese whisper'' BAD NEWS TRAVELLS FAST''I reported the shite carry on the minute I came across a steward,that was when i was exiting the show 2-3 hrs earlier than I would have liked.You mention the traveller numbers were of a small perportion on the whole compared to the numbers of people that attended,well as small as their numbers were,there was plenty enough of them to piss the ferk out of decent hunting people that traveled 2-3 or even 4 hrs to attend the show.NOT GOOD ENOUGH.You have highlighted on numerous occasions through this topic that ''no one reported any thing to anyone''POSSIBLY BECAUSE WE COULDNT FIND ANYONE TO REPORT TO?Anyway I wont nor will my son be attending this show again,a lot of my friends fom all over the country have the same view,shoddy security.Being realistic,everyone I conversed with all spoke of the crap going on.Some had no hassle as they had no dogs with them.IT WAS QUIET VISIBLE TO ANYONE NEAR THE RING THAT THE TRAVELLERS WERE A PROBLEM.I conclude from this point that your security were not very near the ring at all or they didnt want to know.you can debate about the fact no one reported it all night/day long,bottom line.....theres were not enough visible stewards present.

 

 

Thanks for your comments. As I said we had four security personnel in yellow vests and around 8 stewards in the GATE C field at GATE plus 8 people and security guard actually at the gate. We did not have stewards at the Terrier & Lurcher ringside as we do not have stewards stationed at the gundogs, the clay shooting the fishing etc.

 

I repeat we can only deal with problems when they are reported to us. We give all areas passing attention and as I say I was at the terrier and lurcher rings for about 15- 20 minutes in the morning plus two other visits of c5- 10 minutes at other times of the day and in the field as a whole at least 6- 8 times. At any one time at least one director was present in that field and our litter crew of 6 operated throughout the day. NONE of these people reported any problems.

 

Yet from your description there were stacks of incidents - ONLY ONE WAS REPORTED DURING THE FAIR.

 

In order that we can deal with a potential problem without simply withdrawing the terrier & lurcher presence which from your assertions would seem to be what attracts these alleged miscreants. It would appear that that is what some of the people on this forum would like.

 

 

I have checked with the Garda and there WERE NO REPORTS of problems to them either. None of our c30 terrier visitors from the Uk reported any problems either!

 

We employ a professional security company,have an extensive communications network, and have a guaranteed quick response from garda including 2-4 on cycles throughout the grounds at any one time. But if members of the public like you do not inform us of trouble until afterwards surely you mcan seethat we cannot respond.

 

Can you give me an estimate of how many of these people there were and how you identfied them to be 'travellers.' I dealt with about 8-10 persons identified to me as travellers last year who were selling plastic BB guns which I don't allow on site - the matter was reported and dealt with within about 15 minutes. Any reported incident would have been dealt with similarly - as anyone who attends our events at Shanes or elsewhere knows I have zero tolerance with trouble makers. But we cannot concentrate all our security resources into one area when there has been no reports of problems.

 

Albertj

Edited August 31, 2010 by AlbertJ

[burrowman 6]

albert my two sons were looking at plastic bb guns at at least 3 stalls throughout your show,

maybe instead of waiting for reports YOUR STAFF SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE OBSERVANT

[terrier.2 123]

yet again we seem to have deflected away from the terrier events and back to MY SHOWS THE BEST

[jigsaw 11,809]

Albert your a deluded soul,I am wasting my time debating with you and so is everyone else.YOU JUST DONT WANT TO KNOW your ammount of staff was PATHETIC,how many travellers were there?TOO MANY,.I think your just not concerned that your show was badly regulated and the bottom line is I wont be attendin again nor will many of my friends,so you did not do a good job and thats a fact.Stop going round in circles with the''NO ONE REPORTED ANYTHING''scenario,thats because there werent any visible security about. It was a disaster of a day for many due to lack of stewards end of and no point saying anything else.

[AlbertJ 569]

yet again we seem to have deflected away from the terrier events and back to MY SHOWS THE BEST

 

I am sure many will be pleased to hear this is my final comment on this particular thread:

 

But once again I think some facts need to be put to answer some of the posts:

 

1. The Best Fairs in Ireland

I make no apology for stating that the shows we ( my co - directors and I and our excellent team of organisers and staff) run at Shanes Castle and Birr Castle are the best in their respective parts of Ireland. The public, traders, sponsors, competitors and tourism and marketing professionals agree. That's why we had record crowds for any Irish Game Fair ever at Shanes Castle this year and a record attendance for Birr which nearly matched Shanes. Both had an excellent range of quality stands all with at least one bargain offer.

 

Birr was my 44th Fair over 32 years - so I have nothing personally to prove - " done it got the tee shirt" and one has only to read the rather apparetly outlandish claims on/in our 'competitors' web sites and advertising to see why such claims have to rebutted at every opportunity. I factually raised two of these - if telling the truth is 'slating' then so be it.

 

I am proud of our fairs and the pleasure they bring to peple, I set high standards for myself and the people I work with. We work extremely hard and invest ( risk) large sums of money annually to produce the best fairs in Ireland. To see the commitment of our guys working on the ground from 7.00 in the morning to at least 8.00 and sometimes 12.00 at night for over 10 days to deliver a well organised fair makes me feel very humble as their commitment to the fairs matches my own. Like myself they do not do it for the money - however unlike myself they are guaranteed expenses albeit extremely modest! Most of these guys have been with the team for 25 plus years and like myself are not in the full flush of youth!

 

And quite a few of our team like myself work virtually 365 days of the year at delivering these fairs. I am the spokesperson for the team but I readily admit that it is the team and the team effort that delivers the success not me personally. I do not mind people criticising me but I will not tolerate people unfairly criticising our team.

 

Game Fairs , as our 'competitors' in Ireland and organisers elsewhere have found out, are not a license to print money. I remember speaking to one organiser who as a trade exhibitor thought it was - he lost everything including his house! In our first year at Clandeboye in 1979 when few people outside a small country sports fraternity knew what a Game Fair was, we planned for a loss of £8,000 and lost £15,000.

 

We have never really sought to maximise the profits of the fairs, we run the fairs because as dedicated country sports enthusiasts we think they provide the best defence of all against threats to our sports. I am fortunate that our team of directors including my recently deceased friend and colleague John Mc Clelland have been similarly committed and prepared to invest money and at least partly disperse profits into helping sporting organisations, clubs and causes. This included massive efforts put in by John McClelland suffering firstly from emphysema and then through a double lung transplant for a very small return on his investment of time and money. Out of any profits we make no one who has ever approached us for support for a worthy sporting cause has ever been turned away.

 

This year I pursuaded my colleagues to support the terrier & lurcher fraternity in a massive way in response to criticism from the Mid Antrim and people on this forum that we were treating them less favourably than other sports in which we were involved. My colleagues willingly gave me their support and helped deliver one of the most high profile terrier and lurcher events ever in Ireland. That is why I will not allow unfair crticism of them without response. Whether or not they will give me similar support in the future is not certain - we don't need to pay to be insulted!

 

2. We cannot or will not discriminate against travellers or those who look like travellers or indeed anyone by refusing them entrance. Apart from being illegal it is immoral. What we can do as I did personally last year and we and the garda did this year when we get a report of problems with ANYONE - traveller or otherwise we act to sort out the problem. We had a report last year of 'hawkers' selling BB guns and removed them. This year the garda assisted us to remove a similar problem when it was reported.

 

3. Neither we or the garda can hassle people because of how they look, speak or dress. In fact the garda can only act when a complaint has been made - this year and I repeat this again NO COMPLAINTS WERE MADE TO THE GARDA OR US ABOUT THE ALLEGED PROBLEMS AT THE TERRIER AND LURCHER RINGS. HAD THEY BEEN MADE THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN ACTED UPON IMMEDIATELY.

 

4. I am deeply sorry if anyone felt intimidated, pestered or threatenned by anyone at our event and can assure you that if it had been reported it would have been dealt with immediately. If we run a large scale terrier &lurcher event again at Birr we will handle it differently but owners must play their part by making an immediate complaint. We or the Garda cannot act without a complaint being made. It would appear from the reports that the 'threat' or nuisance was not physical and since none of our team on the ground reported it - as widespread as has been reported. I don't want to play down its significance to people who felt initimidated in any way but it is interesting that it was first made by someone who was disgruntled by misreading the directions and wanted to criticise our fair and praise the other fair. I would like anyone who was hassled to contact me on irishgamefair@btinternet.com advising me of the problem and I will speak to them personally about it.

 

5. We do not advise people to bring pups under 6 months old to our events. Apart from the security issue of possibly getting them stolen there are welfare issues. As many of the people who were there will know I toured the area and spoke to very many people about this. I was pleased that everyone I spoke to co-operated fully and I would like to thank you all for this.

 

6. The overwhelming opinion of the record number of people who attended this event; the Garda, and media was that event was a huge success that passed off with only three reported incidents - a dog stolen, a lady who suffered a heart problem and some BB guns on sale.

 

7. Finally the event was well stewarded, we had adequate and professional security with a good communication network and buggies for more rapid and safe reaction; two professional safety advisers on the ground and a good uniformed and plain clothes garda presence on the ground with good back up if required. We had the resources in place to deal with virtually any problem or emergency. These were not called into play at the terrier & lurcher rings because there were no reported problems.

 

Albertj

[Blue one 89]

Albert your a deluded soul,I am wasting my time debating with you and so is everyone else.YOU JUST DONT WANT TO KNOW your ammount of staff was PATHETIC,how many travellers were there?TOO MANY,.I think your just not concerned that your show was badly regulated and the bottom line is I wont be attendin again nor will many of my friends,so you did not do a good job and thats a fact.Stop going round in circles with the''NO ONE REPORTED ANYTHING''scenario,thats because there werent any visible security about. It was a disaster of a day for many due to lack of stewards end of and no point saying anything else.

 

Jigsaw, it seems its falling on deaf ears mate, he really is not listening!

I am with you on this all the way.

 

Albert, 6 guards and a hand full of stewards, to control 32,000 people?

Well, enough said...

I have spoken to a lot of lads and lasses and can tell you now, they wont be going again...

This, is my last word on this pathetic matter.

[AlbertJ 569]

Albert your a deluded soul,I am wasting my time debating with you and so is everyone else.YOU JUST DONT WANT TO KNOW your ammount of staff was PATHETIC,how many travellers were there?TOO MANY,.I think your just not concerned that your show was badly regulated and the bottom line is I wont be attendin again nor will many of my friends,so you did not do a good job and thats a fact.Stop going round in circles with the''NO ONE REPORTED ANYTHING''scenario,thats because there werent any visible security about. It was a disaster of a day for many due to lack of stewards end of and no point saying anything else.

 

Jigsaw, it seems its falling on deaf ears mate, he really is not listening!

I am with you on this all the way.

 

Albert, 6 guards and a hand full of stewards, to control 32,000 people?

Well, enough said...

I have spoken to a lot of lads and lasses and can tell you now, they wont be going again...

This, is my last word on this pathetic matter.

[AlbertJ 569]

Albert your a deluded soul,I am wasting my time debating with you and so is everyone else.YOU JUST DONT WANT TO KNOW your ammount of staff was PATHETIC,how many travellers were there?TOO MANY,.I think your just not concerned that your show was badly regulated and the bottom line is I wont be attendin again nor will many of my friends,so you did not do a good job and thats a fact.Stop going round in circles with the''NO ONE REPORTED ANYTHING''scenario,thats because there werent any visible security about. It was a disaster of a day for many due to lack of stewards end of and no point saying anything else.

 

Jigsaw, it seems its falling on deaf ears mate, he really is not listening!

I am with you on this all the way.

 

Albert, 6 guards and a hand full of stewards, to control 32,000 people?

Well, enough said...

I have spoken to a lot of lads and lasses and can tell you now, they wont be going again...

This, is my last word on this pathetic matter.

 

One correction - we did not have only '6 guards and a handful of stewards'. If you are going to make allegations make them factual.

[Blue one 89]

Albert your a deluded soul,I am wasting my time debating with you and so is everyone else.YOU JUST DONT WANT TO KNOW your ammount of staff was PATHETIC,how many travellers were there?TOO MANY,.I think your just not concerned that your show was badly regulated and the bottom line is I wont be attendin again nor will many of my friends,so you did not do a good job and thats a fact.Stop going round in circles with the''NO ONE REPORTED ANYTHING''scenario,thats because there werent any visible security about. It was a disaster of a day for many due to lack of stewards end of and no point saying anything else.

 

Jigsaw, it seems its falling on deaf ears mate, he really is not listening!

I am with you on this all the way.

 

Albert, 6 guards and a hand full of stewards, to control 32,000 people?

Well, enough said...

I have spoken to a lot of lads and lasses and can tell you now, they wont be going again...

This, is my last word on this pathetic matter.

 

One correction - we did not have only '6 guards and a handful of stewards'. If you are going to make allegations make them factual.

 

Your words below Albert, taken from page 4 of this thread:

 

''

The number of travellers amongst the record crowd of just under 32,000 was fairly negligible. We had a security man at each gate, 6 plus supervisor inside and over 35 stewards plus 6 garda. ''

Edited September 1, 2010 by Blue one

[kegs 40]

Good God - sorry to hear about your pup Carraghsgem - glad now I didn't travel down - my young fella wanted to take down his new 10 wk old pup and no doubt it would have been stolen off him and he may have copped a couple of thumps too defending it.

 

Not sure what else to say other than organisers should also bring about seperate security for the dog area (doormen with batons and shockers).

 

Funny didn't hear of any throuble at Ballinlough other than the whippet left behind and didn't see any tinkers/gippos or travellers at the Antrim show (nor the need for police either).

 

Carraghsgem - sorry again

 

Won't be making plans for Birr either next year. No excuse for these sort of complaints.

now thatll be the day that man has an excuse for everything his first posts about the show slated another fair,but thats ok he had 180 stands NOT

id still like to know why i had to pay 5 euro and the lad from the north parked beside me payed 3 sterling as the last time i checked they were near the same ?

why was the lurcher judge not in for dog of the day?

700 lurcher people at 15 ahead plus 5 euro a class per dog =A NICE DAYS PAY

BUT THEY MAKE NO MONEY albert i went to your show and on the grand scale of it had a good enough day but for you to start slating any show it boils my p*ss{woops there i go letting my common lurcher keeping self out again}ive been 3 years running and heard and seen most of it all before.its a good enough day out but when you run others down you undo that good luck signed Dee mc carthy

 

Dee

What a lot of complaints!

 

I did not slate another show I simply stated the facts about the Ballinlough show.There is a world of difference between stating accurate facts and unfair criticism. My response on the other show was to someone who claimed that the other show was better.

 

I thought he/she may have been misled by the advertising about the other show and wanted to correct him/her.

 

Facts are : Ballinlough advertised 'over 180 stand'. Do you think it is a good idea to apparently inflate people's expectations? Did you see 180 trade stands at Ballinlough. It was also advertised as being in partnership with CAI - CAI have confirmed it was not. Now are you saying you agree with apparently inaccurate advertising and claims?

 

If someone inaccurately claimed their dog was faster or better than yours would you not seek to correct the claim?

 

I make no apology for drawing attention to apparently inaccurate promotion of events as I think they tarnish the public's perception of all game fairs.

 

Your count on the lurchers is information to me - I do not take anything to do with setting entry not take anything from them - that goes to the clubs.

 

And when one gives over approxmately one quarter of our main internal car parking field and provides exceptional prizes etc I can assure you if we wished we could get a much better return by NOT having lurchers at the events.

 

AlbertJ

 

PS I don't think any large event is any place for a 10 week old pup!

again you miss the point albert if your shows are as big as you say then why even mention another show

you say about miss leading info,shanes call their show an all ireland,when infact its just a show you enter on the day

on the prize front i have an idea there are at least 4 shows in your area next year before ballywalter some of this years event pictures are on here and i beleive your magazine gave some tickets out to them why dont you take some time as you have confessed you dont know alot about lurchers and terriers go to a couple as im sure you like anyone else would be more than welcome call it marketing research! you could even claim expences then you might see why you get the complaints

ps ive nothing personal against you im sure your a nice lad and fair play on the show its just sometimes i have to say my piece good hunting Dee

Edited September 1, 2010 by kegs

[jf1970 328]

albert j,i was at the fair from 10am until 4pm(couldn't stay any longer,hassle from travellers)i only seen 1 garda on foot all day and i was walking back and forth from lurcher and terrier to main arena,i did see a garda car,but this was only after carraghsgem pup was stolen,the only stewards i noticed were at the gate collecting money,not once did i see any inside the event,so come on albertj,this is a problem that has to be adressed,just because you have done it and got the t-shirt,don't mean you let your standard slip,atb cheers......john.