Cakes and cattle: 100th Inishowen Agricultural Show

This year, Inishowen Agricultural Show (Carn Show) celebrated their 100th anniversary. Every year, people travel from all over Donegal and beyond to show their animals, crafts and produce.

As it was a special year, we decided to push the boat out and enter a few things including: tea brack, madiera cake, boiled cake, four different jams, gooseberry jelly, fresh raspberries, potatoes, a single rose, and a geranium in a pot…. as they say, you’ve got be in it to win it!

Cue much frustration over cracked madiera cakes, many practice-run boiled cakes, and much experimentation with cake tins and oven temperatures. The oven barely cooled during the week leading up to the show. However, no complaints from Mervyn or Steven on the cake oversupply!

The precious geranium spent the week moving around the house, strategically placed to capture every available ray of sunshine to get it to flower in time for the show.

We arrived at the show after judging had been completed to see how we got on. The array of entries was impressive on all accounts with everything from flowers, cakes, knitting, quiltwork, eggs, vegetables, plants and crafts sitting proudly on display.

It was time to find out if all of Joyces’ hard work had paid off….

And it certainly did! All the practice runs and toil was worth it in the end, with a top set of results:

• First prize for Madiera Cake
• First prize for Tea Brack
• First prize for Raspberries
• First prize for Raspberry Jam
• Second prize for Gooseberry Jelly
• Second prize for Potatoes (British Queens)

Despite all the nursing, the geranium didn’t get anything. Oh well, can’t win them all!

The day was good and the show field was packed with people and things to see. Here are some pictures from around the show.

Prize-winning sheep

Orange sheep(!)

Ladies and gentlemen

Horse and traditional cart

Woodworking crafts

Motorbike stunts

After a satisfying afternoon, we headed home for a well deserved glass of red wine, and some award-winning cake to go with it!

An action packed Sunday: Yachts and Fiddles

Every so often there comes a weekend where there’s so many good events happening, one has to make a difficult decisions on what to go to! We were spoiled for choice last weekend, with several events running including: Moville Vintage Car Rally, Moville Raft Race, Clipper Yacht Race and the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention.

After much deliberation, we decided to drive up the road to Derry to see the Clipper yachts that had arrived steadily throughout Saturday from Nova Scotia in Canada, on the final leg of their 40,000 mile round-the-world journey.

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race started in the UK in Southampton last July and will call at 14 ports during their circumnavigation of the globe. A fleet of ten 68ft racing yachts are manned by people from all backgrounds and professions, and take eleven months to complete the race.

We’ve been looking forward to their arrival for a while and were watching their progress online on Saturday so we could get the binoculars out and spot them as they passed Tremone Bay on their way to Derry.

Derry pulled out all the stops and put on a spectacular welcome for them, with a host of activities running on the city waterfront where the boats were moored. Tour boats were shuttling people up and down the Foyle to see the boats close up, there was live music, and the Flavours of the Foyle Seafood Festival where lots of local restaurants were serving up delicious snack-size seafood dishes (Steven particularly enjoyed his chowder from the Rathmullan House stand). There were also a couple of Dutch naval vessels berthed where the public could come on deck for a tour.

After picking up Mervyn from the Oaks Fishery, we headed off to Buncrana for our next treat of the day, to see The Chieftains in concert as part of the finale of the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention (NAFCo). Dubbed “the Olympics of the Fiddle World”, the convention ran for five days in various venues across Inishowen and Derry, bringing world-class traditional music artists together from all over the world.

We were delighted to get the opportunity to see The Chieftains, it’s not every day such a legendary band play so close by. The Plaza in Buncrana was filled to the door, and we were in for a great night.

The show was opened by Fiolministeriet, an all-female Danish trio who play the fiddle and cello. The Chieftains followed, bursting into life in their own inimitable style. Highlights of the night were:

Nathan and Jon Pilatzke and their spectacular Canadian step dancing. I’ve never seen legs move like it before.

The dozen or so members of the Inishowen Traditional Music Project, headed up by Roísín McGrory, playing a piece they wrote in honour of The Chieftains.

The encore, complete with Colmcille Pipe Band, where half the audience ended up dancing in a chain around the venue and on the stage.

(Wait for the pipe band to kick in at 0:40!)

A truly unforgettable evening and a spectacular finale to a great event and a wonderful Sunday.