North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

Donkey throng

By its horse fairs shall you judge a country. I like horse fairs; not horse shows or, heaven forbid, gymkhanas. A Horse Fair is a great social leveller - every class of person turns up for a look, and no class of creature is excluded - you won't find too many chickens or ferrets at a gymkhana, but they are practically de rigeur at a horse fair.

A key species at a horse fair is the donkey. Now, there is almost no practical use for donkeys anymore. No farm relies on them for any task other than to perhaps clear a field of weeds or briars - they will eat anything. A donkey doesn't make much of a pet either. You could spend your entire life caring for a donkey, and the moment you turn your back on it, it will happily sink its teeth into your arm, for no other reason than it likes biting things.

A donkey has a very simple philosophy in life - you want to go left ? Grand - the donkey's going right, then. Which is why it is so much fun to watch donkeys at horse fairs. An owner will spend an hour, dragging, hauling and swearing at his donkey as he drags it to the enclosure, only for someone to buy it and spend another hour dragging the thing to his trailer. It's not like the donkey has any objection to where its going - it just that, for a donkey, if a human is trying to lead it somewhere, it's time to dig in its heels. On principle, like.

I photographed the 2006 Westport Horse Fair back in September of that year, but never got round to putting together a gallery until now. Donkeys feature heavily.

By the way, if you have an hour or two to waste, fire up Google Earth and type Westport Ireland into the Search window. Google Earth have created a 3-dimensional photo view of the town which is pretty cool. It's not entirely accurate - you can't see herds of stag-party drinkers staggering about the streets, for a start. And there are no donkeys visible, either.

View a collection of pictures from the 2006 Westport Horse Fair here.