They’ve stolen the show at many Durrow scarecrow festivals over the years and this year, Conahy Vintage Club continued its winning streak with a creation depicting the famous Cody-Shefflin handshake at this year’s Leinster hurling final.
The Co. Kilkenny vintage club took the prize for the most topical entry at this year’s All-Ireland Scarecrow Championship with a creation based on the icy handshake between the two managers after Galway’s defeat of Kilkenny.
Conahy Vintage Club has won a prize every year since it first entered the Durrow Scarecrow Festival competition in 2015. For the first four years of entry, it took the overall gong.
In 2015 the club created a dinosaur. The following year members built Noah’s Ark and in 2017, they impressed with a ferocious King Kong.
In 2018, the vintage club built a large scarecrow depicting the pope’s visit to Ireland. Members designed a ‘popemobile’ and had the pope standing in it, waving at the crowd. The creation included scarecrows of spectators and security men.
This year, as well as the recreating the Cody-Shefflin handshake, the vintage club entered its depiction of a Gatso speed van that had many motorists slowing down as soon as they spotted it, quipped part-time farmer and club member, Michael Bergin.
“Every vintage club member brings different skills with them. The task is to make the best of them and the scarecrow projects really open up the imagination,” said Michael.
“For example, we needed something to bring out the characters of Cody and Shefflin so with the help of the cup of tea and debate in chairman Eric O’Sullivan’s shed, the crown for Shefflin and of course the peak cap for Cody, were booted,” he continued.
“But how and who to make them was left to the next night. Of course you could rely on fellow member, Shem Kavanagh, to arrive the following night with the most brilliantly homemade cap and crown which just set the whole thing off.
“It’s got harder to get volunteers so we initially said we would just do one small entry, the speed van.
“However, I was at home one evening and I looked out the window and saw the figures of Katie Taylor and Delfine Persoon which had won us a prize in 2019, and I thought those figures could provide us with the basis of Cody and Shefflin for a depiction of the handshake.”
The members meet as required throughout the year and the gatherings provide an important social outlet and sense of camaraderie, Michael said.
“We also do tractor runs, vintage ploughing day trips and overnighters, take part in the Castlecomer Wellie Race and help out and support other groups,” he added.
Creating the supersized exhibits for the Durrow Festival has taken a lot of time but people appreciate the effort, Michael said, adding:
“Anybody is welcome to join our club. They don’t need to be vintage mad, just have a good of humour. We have one lady member whom we treasure and we would like to have more.”
The overall winner at this year’s festival was Dove House, Abbeyleix, for its creation ‘World Inclusion’. The entry features people of different ethnicities, ages and abilities, holding hands around a straw globe peppered with flags, with Michael Jackson’s ‘Heal the World’ playing.