At The Races - Clonmel Photos
More photos. This time from Tipperary. By the Comeragh Mountains.
It’s another racecourse, and it won’t be my last because I reckon days at the races are one of the best ways to have a look at Ireland and its people.
This was last Sunday when Ireland were losing convincingly to Argentina which is why you don’t get any photos of Clonmel town. I watched the game in the bar on the course rather than on a walkabout.
If I had a telephoto lens and more nerve you’d get some nice photos of people, but I have yet to develop that sense of intrusiveness or afford that quality of camera.
So here is a day at Clonmel Racecourse. It lashed rain all the way down from Dublin but as you can see the sun came out when I reached Clonmel:
And there’s much more with people in them below the fold. Oh and horses too.
Entering the racecourse:
Studying the form:
Watching the parade ring:
If you wandered down towards the stables you got a nice view of the final furlong:
A bookie. From Cork as it happens:
I have an each-way bet for you:
Throughout the meeting horses were led along the track from the stables to the saddling enclosure and as in this case back to the stables after the race:
Ice cream vans in Ireland (and this one has a British reg) are purpose-built vehicles in contrast with the vans I was used to in Kansas City which are the equivalent of an old beat-up Transit with a few random stickers:
And where there are ice cream vans there are ice cream cones:
Not really visible to you, but trust me there was a lot of ice cream on this face:
Meanwhile the horses are leaving the parade ring:
This is where the horses have completed one lap with another circuit to go:
Like in Downpatrick, the home straight favours horses who like running uphill:
TG4 were there:
The parade ring:
I liked this view from the bend after the finishing post:
But some people preferred other views:
See More Photo Collections:
• Dublin Walls
• Downpatrick
• West Cork
• Kansas City Walls
• At The Races - Downpatrick
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
I’m lovin’ the pictures, Eolai. I really enjoy your words but I guess it would take a thousand of them to well…you know.
It would take a lot Ms Britches and I’m a touch strapped for time these days - Apart from a wedding and a funeral, I’ve been heavily under the weather whilst trying to migrate to a new machine and operating system and fighting bureacracy to complete my move. Fighting is the wrong word; it’s more more trying to make things happen against a culture of nonchalence mixed in with ineptitude.
Words will resume though. My head is full of them.
The mountain in the background of the photos is Slievenamon.
The people of the Independent Republic of South Tipp will not thank you for landing them in Waterford. A prideful bunch, we are, and some would say with reason.
Happy Patrick’s day. And have a nice day, now.
Vincent, you might want to read the post again.
I said that the photos come from Tipperary. They do. And that that part of Tipperary is by the Comeragh mountains. It is, even if they are in Waterford. Are you suggesting that South Tipp is an island that isn’t by anything?
Have a nice day yourself, wherever you choose to spend it.
Granted. But you have only one shot of the hill over the town, while the shots facing north across the course are of Slievenamon. The IRoST comment was/is and always will be a joke, but reflects a current and historic independent frame of mind.
This year Patrick’s day is all confused because of Holy Week, and with some twistyturn have shifted the Holy Day to to-day.
So this evening I may go to Cashel and watch a firework display and Monday is just to far away, and is likely to be perishing anyway. It used to be so much easier. But it’s why I was wishing you a nice day for this day rather than Monday. Have wishes for both days, just in case.
Cheers. Have a good one! I’m told the Cashel thing is ticketed - is it really not possible to catch a view of the sky unless you’re in the ticketed area?
Tickets, it never entered my mind and short of them blocking all roads at twenty miles, I do not see what earthly difference a ticket is going to make. And if it means that you need a ticket to enter the Rock itself, there is about a mile of a curtain wall. And the entire population of Munster with a gleam in the eye. People on zimmerframes will be flinging them over, on the principle of the thing.
I love the photos! I have sat several times in Lenihans Pub in Killarney betting on the races, but haven’t been to see them in person. What fun! Thank you for sharing the photos with people in them! I think they are fabulous! I want to go back and see the place for myself….
Thanks Laura! In my experience going horseracing is one of the best ways to enjoy people watching in Ireland. I heartily recommend it