THERE are an awful lot of salmon in the River Moy, and this year's Salmon Festival in Ballina seems determined to celebrate each one of them individually.
It's that busy. The town is packed. Some 50,000 people poured in for Heritage Day alone, last Saturday. Anyone with even the vaguest Ballina or Mayo connections seems to have been roped in to help with organisation or entertainment, or both.
The festival has come a long way in its 32 years, ever since a few hundred people first crowded along the banks of the Moy outside the cathedral for a couple of speeches, a paper plate of fresh salmon and a glass of beer.
Heritage day itself has turned into a huge and colourful caper. Last Saturday you could see young couples in excellently tailored Victorian dress, pushing wooden Victorian prams occupied by genuine live, non-Victorian babies. There were women in elegant silks and bonnets, men in candy striped blazers and boaters. None of your hand me downs either these items were purpose made in one of the local Moy Valley Resources units and rented out (no, no, not the babies). It's an original idea that adds great colour to the day particularly when those in their finery pass by those who have rented out clothes of the farming and peasant classes of the day.
There were the usual gaudy ragtag attractions too, like the shooting ranges and cheap goods stalls, but Heritage Day offered a lot more, displaying a great range of steam engines, antique organs, vintage cars and bicycles. You could watch blacksmiths in action (a course was being offered), see a working lime kiln or discover the ultimate Irish secret how poteen is made. This demonstration took away much of the romance of moonshine as one German tourist innocently remarked. "It does not seem to be a very hygienic process."
As a result of an Irish German friendship struck up between Ballina and Galenhausen, you could even buy powerful German cider and sausages on the street, direct from some of the makers (very hygienic too), adding a European dimension to the day.
A notable aspect of the Irish dimension, as usual, was the celebration in public houses. Part of our heritage too, no doubt. The live RTE Ceili house radio session in Jordan's on Station Road on Saturday night was a particular success.
Meanwhile, the salmon itself was celebrated in the form of one fine specimen on ice outside Devere's fish shop "Caught by Big Jack himself read the attached notice, in reference to one Mr Charlton, a keen fisherman and soccer enthusiast who has a holiday home in Ballina. But it can't be that hard to catch a salmon on the Moy these days. Netting came to an end the year before last and the salmon are now practically giving themselves up to the anglers 4,000 fish were caught on the rod in June.
The festival wisely allots mornings for recovery purposes, but Sunday afternoon saw the Quay Regatta attract another enormous good humoured crowd on a perfect summer day. This time the salmon took a central role, if hanging off the end of a greasy pole can be called central. Whoever greased the pole must have had a personal interest in preserving the prize salmon many were called, most of them young and eager, but few got anywhere near the end of the pole before sliding off to a close encounter with the Moy. We watched and waited and cheered in vain. For all I know the salmon may be hanging there yet.
MEANWHILE second World War Tiger Moths flew above in formation currachs and rafts raced on the river children devoured ice cream and candy floss and the Moy flowed on serenely.
On Sunday night the action switched to the local Stephenites GAA club grounds. "Michael Davitt The Pageant" was a powerful representation of Davitt's life, and a terrific spectacle. Thousands of people poured into the grounds on a beautiful clear night to watch this open air drama. Davitt, from Straide in Mayo, became a hero to the labour movement everywhere, so it was appropriate that the festival's special guest on this occasion was British Labour MP (and former Labour spokesman on Northern Ireland) Kevin MacNamara who remarked. "I think Davitt achieved even more for Ireland than Parnell did."
