The annual Tralee and District Canine Club is due to return to An Riocht Athletic Club grounds here in Castleisland on Saturday, August 23rd.
It’s an event that spans morning to evening and delights the dog loving population of the valley. It caters for the huge influx of owners and breeders from all over Ireland and Europe. That influx is often more than matched by curious and interested locals.
If you like dogs at all – you’ll love this day. If you want to see and smell dedication, determination at its peak – you’ll love this day and its self contained, village atmosphere.
Here in Castleisland the show, in its tented village surreality has found a permanent home after several years of post to pillar pitchings in and around Tralee.
Many of those who travel long distances to ‘show’ their dogs here do so by camper van and motorhome and they bring all including the proverbial kitchen sink with them.
For the past few years they had been increasingly facilitated by being able to park before and after the event in the spacious Castleisland Co-Op Mart yard right behind the ‘show grounds’ here.
It is generally accepted that the Castleisland move was the best made by the club and many visitors were high in their praise of the organisation of the event and the facilities put at the disposal of the exhibitors and the spectators.
Show entries often border on the 2000 mark and they come from all over Ireland the UK and some from even further afield. The bustling scene keeps the busy stewards on their toes and the locals agog all day long.
A visitor to one of the more recent shows, after establishing that I was a local, heaped praise on Maudie and Ned Burke and assured me there would be no ‘Tralee Show’ – as he put it – without them.
“The facilities here couldn’t have been better or more suitable for us. They know what we want and they have provided it here for us. They both, and their team of stewards, deserve all the praise we can give them – they even did their best with the weather.
If you think you can give Spot or Rover of Rex a quick dip in the river and dry him off and present him for judging – think again. Entries for this show have closed on July 18th.
It’s the talk of the town for the week after. Go along and see for yourself and have something to talk about afterwards.
