Monivea Fair all set to draw the crowds again on Sunday

MONIVEA Fair – an event that has attracted thousands of visitors to the picturesque North Galway village over recent years – takes place this Sunday (August 26) with a full schedule of events lined up.  Back through decades, there were traditionally four fairs ever year in Monivea with the August event normally one of the bigger ones, being a major seller for breeding sheep.

The 2018 events that starts around the 1pm mark will have sheep as its major focal point, and this year, a special cup will be presented to the Champion Galway Sheep in honour of the late Michael Maher, one of the great supporters and sponsors of the fair down through the years.

One of the main organisers of the sheep event at the fair, Micheál Conneely, told the Farming Tribune, that the revival of the Monivea Fair which began back in 1997 had been a wonderful success since then.

“We’ve only missed one year since then and that was in 2001 when the foot-and-mouth restrictions were in place. It brings a huge crowd to the village and is a great meeting place for people who mightn’t have seen each other for a long time,” said Micheál Conneely.

He said that people like the late Joe Killarney and Michael Maher had been instrumental in the revival of the fair while the former Sergeant in Monivea, Peter Geraghty and Seán Murphy had also helped to ‘drive’ the event.

The local Garda connection with the fair has also been strongly maintained through the involvement of Mick McDermott while Peter Greaney and Tomás Mannion have also, over more recent years, been to the fore in promoting the event.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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