Carrowniskey Races called off due to weather

Strong winds and sand storms cancel Carrowniskey Races


Anton McNulty
antonmcnulty@mayonews.ie

Gale force winds blowing in from the Atlantic which resulted in sand storms forced the cancellation of the annual Carrowniskey Races on Sunday afternoon.
A crowd of 1,000 people were due to descend on the west Mayo beach near Louisburgh for the annual race meeting but the organisers were forced to cancel the event on Sunday morning due to the inclement weather. The strong winds created sand storms along the beach and it was felt it would be too dangerous for the horses to proceed.
Rita O’Malley, Secretary of the Carrowniskey Races, told The Mayo News that they are due to have a meeting tonight (Tuesday) to discuss rescheduling, but are uncertain if a date will  be available to suit the tide times.
“We had been planning this since last February and were so, so disappointed to have to call the races off but it was the right thing to do. There were waves of sand blowing on the beach and it was dangerous for the horses to run on. We were working on Friday and Saturday putting the track together and were hopeful the weather would clear for Sunday but there was not chance of it going ahead.
“We are due to have a meeting this week to see if we can reschedule and it might go ahead in September but we are not sure. We will have to work around the tides and at this moment we are not sure if it will go ahead. There have been several races which had to be cancelled this year so far because of the weather,” she explained.
The heavy rain on Sunday put a dampen on a number of events throughout the county but events such as the Erris Agricultural Show and the Tourmakeady Agricultural Show went ahead with large crowds braving the weather to support the shows.
The weather has proved a lottery for a number of committees organising community festivals this year and have had to take the weather into account. At a recent court appearance, a committee organising a festival on Inishbiggle over the Bank Holiday Weekend applied for a bar licence for two weekends incase the Bank Holiday is a wash out.

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