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The 2012 running of the annual Glenbeigh Horse and Pony Races will take place on Rossbeigh Strand on Saturday 1st September and Sunday 2nd September. The committee is pleased to anounce that the Glenbeigh Festival & Races President for 2012 is Mary McGillicuddy. The races will be the centrepiece of a weekend festival with plenty to entertain the whole family. The local pubs of the area are also playing their part, with fantastic nightly entertainment in “The Towers Hotel”, “Ashes Bar”, “The Red Fox Inn, “Sweeney's Village Pub” "The Ross Inn" and "The Olde Glenbeigh Hotel". The Opening ceremony will be held on the Friday night at the Red Fox Inn with the inauguration of the Festival Queen and the hand over of the Presidential Chain of Office by our 2011 President Connie 'Ned' O'Sullivan. This years main live act has just been announced... the legendary 'Royal Flush' with support band 'Terminal 2'.
History
The Glenbeigh Races were first held on Rossbeigh Strand in 1924. However this was to prove to be a costly venture as the local Garda Sergeant, a Mr. Scannell summonsed the organisers to court for their failure to have the required permit. The four people summonsed were:
• Diarmuid O’Sullivan (grandfather of Peadar, current Race Committee Joint Treasurer)
• Tom Cahill of Droum
• Pat Morris of Mountain Stage (the then proprietor of the shop in Mountain Stage)
• Tom Jones, then a local school teacher
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For this they were fined £80, a huge sum of money then, later reduced to £20, still a considerable amount of money. Coming close to the ending of the divisive Civil War one can speculate that there might have been differing attitudes to the legitimacy of the administration of the legal remit involved. Needless to say, having suffered such penal penalties there were no further attempts to host the races for quite a while.
It wasn’t until 1957, that another attempt was made to host racing in Glenbeigh. Amongst the organisers were Patrick Clifford and Johnny O’Mahony, and they are still today active and involved the organisation of Glenbeigh Races. Over the next number of years, Glenbeigh began to become established as a holiday location, helped by the growing international reputation of the Towers Hotel, and the races held in late July / Early August grew to be the centrepiece of a festival that stretched to over ten days. Indeed, the hotel proprietor at that time, the larger than life Ernie Evans used to host a party in his house at Rossbeigh on raceday which became the place to be for those who perceived themselves to be “celebs”.
Initially a one day event, the Glenbeigh Races became a two-day meeting before reverting back to one day. One year, the organisers even attempted to host jump-racing, but this proved to be a disaster as horses cannot get enough grip on the hard sand of Rossbeigh to enable them to jump properly, and all that resulted was a series of refusals, unseated riders and horses running out. Another less than successful innovation was the introduction of Sulky Racing (Trotting Races where the horses pulled a small lightweight cart or gig, also known as Standardbred Racing). While the surface was in this case ideal, the public were not interested and despite the popularity of this sport in West Cork, the experiment in Glenbeigh was abandoned. However by
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the mid 1970’s interest in the Glenbeigh Races was dwindling, largely brought about by the small number of horses participating, and the uncompetitiveness of the racing. In what was to prove to have disastrous consequences, there were no races held in 1978, so when racing was scheduled for 1979, the Public Liability Insurance Premium jumped to £9000 – because no premium was paid in 1978, a new policy was required, and the old rate was lost. For that year the London-Glenbeigh Association paid the premium, but with such unsustainable costs for Public Liability Insurance, the races ceased.
In 1996 the Glenbeigh Races were resurrected following the negotiation of an umbrella insurance policy that enabled all Horse and Pony Racing throughout the country to avail of Public Liability Insurance at reasonable cost. Under the guidance of people such as Pat and Joan Griffin, Johnny O’Mahony, Patrick Clifford, Paddy Finn and Brendan Sweeney, and backed by the very generous sponsorship of many benefactors, the races grew from the initial one day, to become a two day meeting. Glenbeigh Races is now one of the biggest race meetings on the Horse and Pony Racing Calendar.
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Events
Friday night, 31st August, The Village (6pm - 9pm)Childrens Fancy Dress competition & parade (starting at Towers Car Park in the village & finishing at The Football field). Dog Show, Bouncy Castles, Face Painting, Terrier Dog Racing, Ladies & Gents Tug of war and a slight twist on the usual 'Derby' will all take place at the Football Field. Radio Kerry will also be broadcasting live so why not pick a tune and play a request for someone!
Friday night, 31st August, The Red Fox (10pm)
The Red Fox will again host the official opening of the Glenbeigh Festival, where our 2011 Festival President Connie 'Ned' O'Sullivan will hand over the chain of office to our New 2012 President Mary McGillicuddy. The selection of our 2012 Festival Queen will take place with live music by Beautiful Noise followed by DJ Johnny Cee.
Saturday, 1st September, Rossbeigh Beach (12.30pm Sharp)
Top class horse and pony racing will take place on the golden beach of Rossbeigh at 12.30pm sharp
Saturday, 1st September, The Ross Inn, (4.30pm - 6pm)
A Festival Barbecue will take place at the Ross Inn commencing at 4.30pm, with live music by Masons Apron (indoors if raining)
Saturday, 1st September, The Village Square (9.30pm)
This years open air headline act to take to the village square stage is none other that the legendary 'Royal Flush' with support act 'Terminal 2' who will be warming up the crowd.
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Sunday, 2nd September, Rossbeigh Beach (12.30pm Sharp)
Top class horse and pony racing will take place on the golden beach of Rossbeigh. Best Dressed Ladies, Gents and children competition. All participants to receive champagne reception. So put the glad rags on and maybe bag yourself some prizes!!
Sunday, 2nd September, The Ross Inn, (4.30pm - 6pm)
A Festival Barbecue will take place at the Ross Inn commencing at 4.30pm, with live band (indoors if raining)
Sunday, 2nd September, Ashes Bar, (7pm-9pm)
Music in Ashes Bar, The village with live music from 7pm
Sunday, 2nd September, Sweeneys Bar (10pm)
The festival will draw to a close in Sweeneys Bar, The Village with the Closing Dance, live music from 10pm
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