What do you get if you put a Church of Ireland minister, a Catholic priest, a Garda sergeant, a town councillor and an ageing hippie together in the same room? In Co Carlow, you get a weekend festival designed to promote the town, and the river that runs through it.
The Bagenalstown River and Floral Festival was opened yesterday evening by horse trainer Ted Walsh and former taoiseach Albert Reynolds. Since 2001, the festival has become one of the area's summer highlights. This year, an exhibition featuring the region's amazing prowess in things equestrian will be open throughout the weekend.
The displays will groan with the silverware of some of the most successful horse trainers in the world who happen to be based around Bagenalstown.
Between them, Willie Mullins, Jim Bolger, Dessie Hughes, Paddy Mullins, Tom Foley, Ted Walsh and others have won some of the top prizes - including the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup. On show will be enough trophies and memorabilia to excite even the most-weathered racing fan.
"Within a 10-mile radius, we have some of the best horses and trainers in the world. On show will be racehorse legends like Florida Pearl, Vintage Crop and Danoli," said Mim Scala of the festival committee.
"In 2001, the then Bagenalstown sergeant, Benny Mills, enlisted me on to a committee with an odd combination of a Protestant canon, a Catholic priest, various town councillors and this ageing hippie," said Scala, an Englishman who worked in London's music scene before retiring to fish in the River Barrow.
"The principle aim of the festival is to draw tourist attention to the Barrow, it's Ireland's best-kept secret," he said. "It's full of wildlife, great fishing and there is no one on it. After years of rock and roll, I have found a new life here which is absolutely blissful."
Apart from the racing exhibition, there will be angling competitions, raft races, barge trips, medieval-style tournaments and archery. The website is www.bagenalstown-festival.com.
"When the festival started" Scala said, "we had a couple of hundred people at it but now we are expecting thousands . . . over the weekend to make their way into this great town. It has developed into quite an event in Co Carlow."
