Military Vehicle Show a great success

The Military Vehicles Show run on the Curragh Racecourse during May was so successful that the Kilcullen-based chairman of the group which organised the event is hoping to make it even more of a national attraction next year.



"It was our third year, and we had more than 18,000 people there," says Des Travers, now retired after a long career of service as an army officer, and current chairman of the Military Vehicles Club of Ireland. He’s pictured on the right with ex-Sergeant Major Billy O'Neill, with whom he served his last posting in the Military College at the Curragh Camp.

Extending the event from its origins as a show of old and new military vehicles, the 2006 exhibition included demonstrations from other services, including An Garda complete with speed detection equipment, an Air Corps helicopter winching in simulated rescue activities, and veteran fire vehicles from the Fire Service Trust.



There were also examples of fighting from past ages by a number of groups whose members spend their leisure time in old fighting gear re-enacting in very accurate detail how soldiers fought in various times. Pictured below are members of the "Wild Geese enactment group" based in Sligo with Jim Smyth, a member of the Ulster Military Vehicle Club. His collection of vehicles was on the theme 'Irish Military Police vehicles on UN Duty'.



"That prompted me to consider extending this in future events," Des Travers says. "I really wasn't aware of the number of people doing these re-enactments, and I was surprised to find how many of them are as close to us as Athy, for instance."

With the availability of the racecourse and its stand for good viewing of such performances, Des Travers sees the possibility of expanding that aspect as having real potential.

"We could even bring in jousters from England," he suggests. "That would certainly draw the crowds."



As it was, the event last month was so overwhelmingly successful that halfway through the day they had to open extra entrances to cope with the people queueing to get in. It was a crossover point for what had been up to then a minority interest occasion.

It could yet rival a race meeting at the location. And maybe even become an event of major international significance.

Brian Byrne.

(Pictures courtesy of the MCVI.)