Balmoral Show 2006

The Balmoral Show is Ireland’s largest agricultural show and it took place this year at Balmoral Showgrounds, Belfast on the 10 – 12 May. It’s a show for all the family and caters not only for the farming community but for the town folk too.

The Group hired a bus to travel to the Show on the second day and encouraged farmers outside the group’s membership to join us. Good weather was predicted so many made use of the free bus. Early in the journey it was noticed that the air conditioning was blowing out HOT air along one side of the bus. The driver Paul and Alfred tried to correct the situation using the controls on the dashboard but to no avail. Paul rang Head Office for instructions but nothing worked. I was fortunate to have been sitting at the front of the bus as I suffer from travel sickness. I have never considered this ailment a blessing but on this occasion it truly was as the only air getting into the bus was from the driver’s open window.
Anyway we continued our journey until we reached Belfast where we sat in a traffic jam due to extensive road works in the area. This really made things worse and many of the men folk were sitting with sweat running down their foreheads and down the side of their faces. It was one of the warmest days of the year to date, the outside temperature in the early 20 degrees centigrade and I recall the digital temperature display in the bus showing 34.2 degrees and rising! It was no surprise to the driver when we told him that we refused to travel back home in the bus in the evening if the problem was not resolved. So you can imagine the relief when we arrived at the Showgrounds and left the bus/sauna and stepped out into the fresh air. But all was soon forgiven and forgotten and we all went our separate ways and viewed the top quality livestock and 340 trade stands.

Whilst at the show I took a few photos to give you a “taste of the day”. It was a great Show and highly recommended!

By the way……the coach hire company sent us a different bus and driver to take us all home in the evening. The air conditioning worked a treat and made the return journey a very pleasant one!

In the King's Hall	In the showgrounds	Lots of machinery	Band on stilts	Show jumping
Dressage	Horse and hounds	Sheep shearing	The "beauty parlour"	Holsteins
Hungry calf	Cattle judging	Champion Charolais	Clydesdale horses	Another type of horse power