Jim Berney still shows 'em how

Seventy-three years of age and still working as energetically as ever, Jim Berney was going hammer and tongs yesterday when the Diary caught up with him at the Dublin Horse Show.



"It's our 44th year here at the show, and I've never missed a year of it," he said with a grin as he made change from a sale he'd just clinched across the counter. "The good Lord has given me the health to do it, and I'm able to keep up with all these youngsters here."



Then he went back to business, handing over the change, and some more to his customer. "There's a bit of luckpenny for you, now," he said. "Thanks for the custom."



The Diary remembers when the Berney Bros stand at the show was just one stall like any of the hundreds of others there. Now it encompasses a whole corner of the strategic annex at the back of the Main Hall.





"Maybe I'll take it easier," Jim mused during a -- very short -- lull. "I could let the young people do the work."

We wouldn't hold our breath, though.



Brian Byrne.