Irish Horse fairs
I went to a horse fair in the west of ireland yesterday. Set in the middle of nowhere, in west Galway, this is a one day event that as far as I could see was over by 3 pm. Boy, was it like stepping back in time. The fair is literally a cross roads where one of the side roads gets closed for the day.
From what I could see, everything was on sale – horses, ponies, donkeys, small welsh ponies, tiny connemara ponies, dogs, cats, puppies, chickens, pigs, even ducks (I have to admit that the ducks looked like they were swimming wild on a lake till the day before). For a lot of rural, isolated farmers this seems to be their big day out. Hundreds of casual traders had also set up stalls selling everything from horse saddles to pillows and clothes.
Anyway, my main interest was the people and while there were a high number of people who did not want to be photographed, there were enough to make it more than worth the day out. The first images I’ve processed are in the “Faces of Ireland” gallery
For now, one of my favourites is this one:
Love the shot! This event is still one of the forgotten happenings of Ireland and a fantastic source for faces of Ireland!