Country Sports and Country Life - Irish Country Lifestyle Festival

Irish Country Lifestyle Festival

The 2005/2006 Festival

The Irish Country Lifestyle Festival - " The biggest and best Game Fair in Ireland AND much, much more!"

Following the success of the 2004 Festival in just its first year at Shanes (and second year in total) It was interested to see if the organising team would "rest on their laurels" as most of the Game Fair organisers in Ireland appear inclined to do or would drive through to fulfil their published objective i.e. "to create a new generation country show with real and unrivalled rural and urban appeal".

Having arguably become the No 1 countrysports fair in Ireland in 2004 through the size of the show, the crowds it attracted and of course winning the prestigious NITB Marketing Excellence Award (with the Moira Fair being one of the runner ups) and followed this up with an even greater success in 2005 one could have understood that the organisers might have become complacent and produced a rather similar event.

However one had only to visit Shanes Castle at any time over 2005/2006 to realise that once again the organising team had stepped up another gear to put this event into a totally different league to any other Game or Country Fair in Ireland. The possible exception might have been the Fair at Emo sadly cancelled in 2007 and we understand from newspaper reports the company organising it has gone into liquidation.

Fair Directors Edwin Dash(Operations), Albert Titterington (Marketing), Irene Titterington (Adminstration), John McClelland (Countrysports), and Paul Robinson (Stand sales) and Chairman Michael Dickey, have an impressive track record of delivering successful indoor and outdoor events over 30 years and it shows in organisation that goes like clockwork - whatever the weather. And in 2006 the Sunday was very wet to start. However this only demonstrated the strength of the show in that crowds were only very marginally affected and the show grounds were in fact a colourful sea of umbrellas. It does help of course that at Shanes Castle there are none of the horrendous parking or access problems seen at some of the smaller shows - up to 5,000 cars can be parked within 6 feet of roadway!

Overall the programme on both years was fantastic with a real gunmakers row in 2006 enhanced by the presence of Churchills; a solid fishersmans row (plus an excellent programme of events for the angler) and truly fantastic gundog events with a massive turnout of gundogs and their handlers on both days. Added to this are the Irish Falconry Championship; N.Ireland's major hound show; the All Ireland Terrier and Lurcher Championships and clay pigeon shooting competitions with fantastic prizes and you can see why this event is described as Ireland's premier Game Fair.

When you throw in a fully functioning medieval village with groups from all over Ireland and the UK and the Lough Neagh Festival with its water based activities - once again you can see how the overall event has earned the soubriquet - "Not only Ireland's No 1 Game Fair but much, much more...!"

A Sea of Umbrellas - Crowds in the wet on Sunday

With the 30th Anniversary Irish Game Fair celebrations planned for 2007 plus the new fair at Birr, The Irish Country Lifestyle Festival proudly takes its place as one of the two GREAT GAME FAIRS OF IRELAND and a worthy successor to the first major Irish Game Fair founded in 1978.