The Tullamore Show is a one-day agricultural and livestock show held on the second Sunday of August each year near the town of

Tullamore Tullamore (; ) is the county town of County Offaly in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is on the Grand Canal (Ireland), Grand Canal, in the middle of the county, and is the fourth most populous town in the Midland Region, Ireland, Midlands Reg ...

County Offaly County Offaly (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is named after the Ancient Ireland, ancient Kingdom of Uí ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Its programme includes cultural events, commercial trade exhibitions, and competitive interests, including livestock, equestrian, home industries, inventions, vintage, fashion, style, cookery, crafts, and performing arts. Agriculture was originally the show's main focus, but this has broadened to include entertainment, food, crafts, lifestyle including 700 trade stands, food and refreshments, fashion and entertainment. Described in some sources as "the biggest one-day event of its kind" in Ireland, the Tullamore Show has previously attracted 60,000 annual visitors.

History

The first agricultural show in Tullamore took place in 1840. It lapsed in 1843, but was revamped and relaunched in the early 1900s. 1938 saw the last of this era of shows, until the idea was reignited in the early 1990s. The show was revived in 1991, 53 years since the previous show. The first of the modern shows was held on the outskirts of Tullamore; the following year, it moved to the larger facility in the grounds of

Charleville Castle Charleville Castle is a Gothic architecture, Gothic-style castle located in County Offaly, Ireland, bordering the town of Tullamore, near the River Clodiagh. It is considered one of the finest of its type in the country. History The first ma ...

. In its first 30 years, the modern show has been cancelled four times. The first cancellation was due to the outbreak of

foot and mouth Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious disease, infectious and sometimes fatal virus (biology), viral disease that primarily affects even-toed ungulates, including domestic and wild Bovidae, bovids. The vir ...

in 2001. The following cancellations were in the years 2007 and 2008, caused by torrential downfalls of rain just prior to opening of the show. In 2020 it was cancelled because of by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The cancellations of 2007/2008 prompted another move to the Butterfield Estate at Blueball, 5 km from Tullamore where it has remained since. Attendances reached 40,000 in the 2000s, and 60,000 in the 2010s.

References

External links

* {{authority control Agricultural shows in Ireland