MAYO TD Michael Ring acknowledged the significance of community spirit, while also highlighting the negative aspects of social media, at the Louisburgh Horse Show dinner dance last Saturday night. The former Minister for Rural and Community Development was responsible for securing funding for over 130 agricultural shows across the country, an initiative he first mentioned at the Louisburgh Show in 2017.

“I saw before the amount of small shows that were actually closing if they had one or two bad years. They were just going out the door and they put a lot of work and effort into running their show,” Ring told The Irish Field afterwards, about his decision to support shows.

“It’s a way of life, part of rural Ireland and our culture. It’s part of everything that we are. The Department of Agriculture wasn’t doing anything about it. And I had an opportunity.

“Now, I had great resistance within the Department [Rural and Community Development], they kept saying that’s the responsibility of Agriculture. I said ‘No, we’re going to put a scheme in place’ and every show got €5,000 the following year [2018]. I have to say, this was probably one of the best schemes ever brought in by the Department.

“Heather Humphreys [the current Minister for Rural and Community Development] is there now and 10 out of 10 for the way she’s continuing the funding. I don’t think any government would be able to take away that funding in the future,” continued Ring, who also thanked The Irish Field and Irish Farmers Journal for their show coverage.

Ring, currently a member of the Oireachtas Commission, was particularly vocal at its meeting last June with Horse Sport Ireland, regarding its future strategy, when he questioned the HSI delegation on HSI board appointments, passports and HR issues.

Earlier on Saturday, the popular politician, whose Mayo West by-election victory in 1994 enabled Fine Gael to go into government with John Bruton as Taoiseach, had attended the late Meath TD’s funeral.

Drive

“I came out tonight to support the Louisburgh Show chairman, Tommy Bennett and everybody involved, as these volunteers kept that show alive. Without the volunteers, nothing would happen. And that’s what keeps me going. I still love the community spirit, I still have a drive for politics, but it’s getting more difficult. Social media has destroyed politics.

“There has to be regulations, you can’t have these guys just putting up anything online and disheartening and upsetting people.

“All our daily papers, all our local papers, have editors, there’s guidelines, rules and regulations. People can put anything up online and it’s actually going to get worse with Artificial Intelligence, as nobody will know what the truth is in the future. It’s very dangerous for society and not alone Ireland, but world governments, with 22 wars now all over the world.”

“Only for Deputy Michael Ring, we’d have nothing. I’d say that 60% of our [agricultural] shows would have been gone [without the funding]. There’s no question about that. Everything happens for a reason and it happened at Louisburgh Show,” said another special guest, Paddy Joe Foy, who mentioned how he raised the issue of potential support for agricultural shows with the Minister that day in 2017.