THE FIRST person to be told of the cancellation of Tullamore Show and AIB National Livestock Show on Saturday evening was Taoiseach Brian Cowen, who was to have performed the official opening here yesterday.
Show chairman Tom Maher said: "The Taoiseach, who is on holiday in Galway, was very upset for us because this is the second year in a row that we have had to pull the plug on the day before the event."
As he surveyed the scores of volunteers who were helping to dismantle the exhibits on the site, he said the 36-member executive would meet on Wednesday to determine how the show, which costs €600,000 to stage, could survive the double cancellation.
The show organisers now face cumulative losses from last year estimated at €150,000. Because of additional expenditure this year, despite having taken out insurance, further losses will accrue.
"A lot will depend on the morale of the committee which has been working flat out for months on this and of course, the financial losses we have to face. However, it is the morale particularly of the key people like the secretary, Freda Kinnarney," he said.
Ms Kinnarney, who has been central to the revitalisation of the show a decade ago to a position where it is now the foremost show in the country, admitted she was "devastated" by the cancellation.
"You might expect to get one very bad Sunday in August now and again, but not two in a row," she said. "It's heartbreaking."
Christy Maye, who handles public relations for the show, said the blow of the cancellation of last year's event had been eased by the attitude of many of the sponsors who had told the committee they would not be cashing the cheques that had been returned.
"My instinct would be to press ahead again and try and hold it next year, come hell or high water," he said.
Mr Maher said that because of the bad experience in 2007 when a cloudburst over the site at Charleville just outside the town had flooded portions of the site, additional safeguards had been introduced for this year.
"We brought in over a kilometre of steel trackway at a cost of €30,000 from Scotland to run it around the site and we had to lay it ourselves over the bank holiday weekend. "However, we could not believe it when on Saturday evening, almost at the same time as it had happened one year before, the sky opened and we were left with no alternative but to cancel because of the ground conditions."
Mr Maher said the condition of the car parks, the possibility of not being able to unload the livestock from heavy lorries and the danger which could be posed by the conditions to the horse jumping events, had led to the cancellation.
Niall Sweeney, former Offaly county manger, who is sponsor co-ordinator, said a "substantial" sponsor had said he did not want his money back and other members of the executive said they too had been told the same thing.
On site yesterday was livestock judge Nick Barrett, who had travelled from East Anglia for the second year running to judge the Shorthorn cattle. He had also been invited to the Mullingar Show last year and it too had been cancelled.