Thats been off the cards for a good while now...
As far as I remember it wasn't to go ahead this year
Shanes Castle was thr venue for Saturday 27 and Sunday 28th June 2020.

I booked local accommodation for June but then the dates were changed for 29th & 30th August.

I'm not holding my breath for it been run this year...


http://www.irishgamefair.com

From the Organisers:

We have been working on contingency plans for the Irish Game Fair & Fine Food Festival and with quiie a bit of planning in place we felt we should give the new date as early as possible. We are in good shape going forwad and will be chatting to exhibitors, event organisers and contractors over the next few days to answer any queries. Formal statement as follows:

"Shanes Castle Game Fair Date Change
As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic the Irish Game Fair at Shanes Castle, Antrim will now be held on 29th and 30th August 2020.
With no other game fair in Ireland this year, Shanes Castle Fair will be a huge All-Ireland event, and while it may be later than normal, with your support it will be EVEN BETTER THAN EVER.
When we felt we had to move dates in the interests of traders, competitors and visitors, it was fortunate with no Southern Fair this year the best dates available in the UK game & country fair calendar were the old Birr Game Fair dates of the last weekend in August
We will keep our Facebook audience up to date on developments and website and online magazine will be updated soon. But we would really appreciate it if everyone could spread the word - no Shanes Castle Fair in June – the All Ireland Shanes Castle Game Fair has moved to the old Birr Castle Fair dates of the 29th& 30th August 2020 #discoverni"

I think Galway was a failure for them as the decision to hold it in Shanes Castle was made prior to the current situation.

I agree with you, but I think they and thier opposite would loose too much revenue and autonomy if they jumped into something like the national ploughing championship .

OTOH the ploughing would give you the greatest bang for your buck so to speak,as you are directly in the heart of an internatoinal event with 3 days of coverage in MSM.Dealing with the audience that allows us to shoot and has the biggest number of owned firearms,and the worst IMO representation of all the orgs here.
Capture some of that market and you increase your powerbase somthing.

OK,maybe I should clarify that better? I meant we should have every one of our shooting Orgs with a rep down there at the ploughing? In one large tent with multiple booths perhaps? We need bodies more than anything else in our orgs,and the IFA shooters are a potential gold mine to recruit.

TBH I've been going to game fairs here in Ireland since they were pretty nuch started in Adare back in the 1980s,and over the years they become more of same,costlier to get into and go to and "Meh"ier too.:(

Adare started to die,once a certain element from a neighbouring town in Co Limerick started to show up.Just about anyone who was in the gun trade was there with a stand,and didnt have any problem with gun displays either.in the end it was more "Dya want ta buy a grand fightin dog/Lurcher/knackerd Greyhound Boss,or this grand pony Boss?" than anything else.And few if anything of guns or knives on display because of that, and the ubquiteous "compo hunters":mad:

The double edged sword then happens ,higher gate costs because of higher claims and insurance costs and any sort of thefts or dubious known chacters hanging about allow AGS to refuse firearms to be displayed. Same o same o sets in as well .You can almost predict on a yearly basis ,who and what will be where.And TBH once "gunmakers and anglers row" goes out of one of these fairs,it is a glorified county fair ,with stuff.:(

IMO the best one ever held in Ireland,and only ever done once ,was the shooting and fishing exhibition in one of the hotels on the M7 on the outskirts of Dublin in the mid 1990s. It was inside, was packed with guns and fishing tackle,well supervised on security,didnt have the dubious dog men and dubiouser sales of animals,pups,ponies and whatnot going on in the backround.You werent squelching thru a morass of plastic chip cartons,sweet papers and other garbage thrown about the countryside.just about anyone who was an org had a rep or stand there too.Even NI's and their wares that were ROI legal at the time were there. And it was packed!

So maybe we need to rethink this concept as gunowners,shooters and anglers,of the "game fair" in toto?