'He would be astonished that it is now at the prison site': The son of the man who kept the Balmoral Show going during the Troubles visits the event for the first time in 50 years, and praises the new Maze venue
The son of the man who ran the Balmoral Show during the Troubles has visited the event for the first time in 50 years.
David Kernohan thinks that he was last at the annual show in May 1976, when his father James T Kernohan was head of the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society (RUAS).
Mr JT Kernohan was secretary-manager (equivalent to chief executive) of the RUAS from the late 1950s to 1978. He died in 1980 at the age of 68, having kept the Balmoral event going through the worst of the years of conflict – including a show in 1972, which was the most violent year of all, and the province teetered on the brink of civil war.
Devoted to his job, Mr Kernohan lived within walking distance – a mile – of the former Balmoral Show venue, the King’s Hall in south Belfast.
David, an economist who moved to London in the 1970s after school and has since lived in France and Belgium, currently in Brussels, comes back to Northern Ireland less often than he did when his parents and siblings were still alive. On Thursday, he was delighted to walk round the Maze site and have lunch in the RUAS pavilion overlooking the main arena. He said: “I think on the one hand my father would have been astonished, as the secretary-manager during the Troubles, that the show has relocated so close to the former prison. On the other hand, as a practical man, he would have appreciated that the modern requirements of agricultural equipment and scale of a show of this size makes it perfectly rational that the RUAS should have made the imaginative decision to relocate to this beautiful rural environment.”
On Thursday, David walked to the perimeter of the current site, past the horse rings and warm-up arenas, to where you can see the old prison watchtowers. He remembers the show in the 1960s and 70s as being popular and bustling, but more male dominated. “I remember that there were a lot of bars in the King’s Hall filled with men, some of which only opened for the show. There were always women and children who came too, but it seems to be much more family-oriented now.”
He has fond memories of the King’s Hall, but adds: “There is much more room for exhibitions now. It is very impressive.”
• Ben Lowry, page 11