Tallow Horse Fair – ponies, post-mortems and still plenty of pulling power

Teresa and Jane Hickey (on holiday from New York) with Teresa's twins, Freya and Rose Kenneally, at last Monday's annual horse fair in Tallow. (Pic: John Ahern)

On a hurling high for several weeks, Waterford supporters are only slowly coming down and with the trauma of another All-Ireland loss fresh in the memory, Monday last was a day for a detailed post-mortem on just what exactly went wrong at hurling headquarters. 

While horse trading is the raison d’etre of Tallow Horse Fair, hurling and more specifically the fallout from Sunday’s decider was the dominant topic of conversation during last Monday’s annual mix of casual trading and horse trading in the west Waterford village – when you throw in busking, baking, fortune telling and foodstalls, you get a feel for what this day is all about.

The Travelling community are traditionally very well represented at Tallow Horse Fair and this was once again the case – an occasion to mix business and pleasure, many of them were in situ on Sunday morning as they set about cordoning off a favourite pitch.

Tallow Horse Fair wouldn’t be the success it is without the support of locals and they turned out in force to snap up a bargain or two.

Coverage in this week’s Print & Digital Edition