A pure August, easterly breeze brought the sounds of the canine chorus back over the town at the crack of dawn this morning.
It’s the annual Tralee and District Canine Club Show time and it’s all crack-of-dawn stuff as the committee, staff and marshals man their positions at first light and before.
Record numbers of entries had been received for this show in spite of the recessionary times. The jaw dropping motor homes and luxury canine apartments began to roll into town on Friday evening for the start of the show are great talking points in the days after.
Ned and Maudie Burke have been immersed in the running of the annual show a long time before it made An Riocht and Castleisland its base in 2008
The show grew up in Tralee as part of the Festival of Kerry programme. However, it has developed and blossomed in Castleisland since it settled here.
Its presence is appreciated here; its patrons have the space to stretch their legs after their journeys and they have been provided with ample parking spaces for their ample motor homes – courtesy of An Riocht AC and Castleisland Co-Op Mart and its adjacent and spacious yard.
Visitors are generous in their praise of the organisers and how they are cared for in the run-up to and after the shows.
It is yet another example of people in a tight community going those extra few steps to show-case their home patch and what it is capable of.
