On St Stephen’s Day, I was the only one in the house [in Carrick-on-Shannon] to wake early (probably because I was the only one not to stay up until 5am on Xmas Day). What to do ? It was a very dull, grey morning so taking pictures of landscapes wasn’t really an option. I decided to head to Lough Arrow and visit some old archaelogical sites. I had only got a mile or two out the road when I encountered a police roadblock – a squad car was blocking the road and a Garda was diverting traffic onto the ‘old road’ [the N4 to Sligo is quite a borad road, unlike the old winding country road that it replaced]. I pulled up and asked the officer if there had been an accident.
No accident – there’s racing on, up ahead, he replied. Oh, I asked, is there a racing track nearby ? He smiled, ” The N4 is the the best racetrack in the country”. It was nearly 11 when I arrived, and the roadblock would end at 11.30. The Garda reckoned that the final was the next race.I grabbed my camera gear and legged it up the raod to where people were gathered. It turns out that this was the first time that this race had been organized in Carrick-on-Shannon [these sort of races take place all over the country – not always ‘officially’]. The racing was of the horse & buggy [or sulky] variety and in Ireland, it is often Travellers that do the racing.
There was around 80 people gathered at the finish and people had travelled from Donegal and across the border as well as from Dublin and other parts of the country. There was a prize for the winer but the real incentive for the spectators was the , ahem, on-course betting. Most of it seemed to be going on down where the horseboxes were parked – I didn’t get a chance to go over to that area while I was there [and I might not have been that welcome there anyway]. I managed to see a couple of races, including the final, which was won by Bernie Nicholson from Boyle in Roscommon [I was told that he helped organize the event too].
I got a bit of a laugh when I enquired about the name of the winning horse – apparently, the horse doesn’t get too much credit in this type of racing. Strolling back to my car after the final, I got chatting to another Garda at the checkpoint. He was remarking on how great it was to see this sort of traditional event still taking place. He mentioned that one driver complained about the diversion, though we both wondered in how much of a hurry could a person be, on St. Stephen’s Day morning, that a 2 minute diversion could much of an impact ?