The late Kitty Cotter was this week remembered as the ‘heart and soul’ of the Dunmanway Agricultural Show by the chairman Reggie Chambers, who said how the group were indebted to herfor her years of invaluable service.

Ms Cotter passed away earlier in January, and had only retired as the show secretary in 2024 after decades of keeping the show on the road.

Speaking to The Southern Star in 2023, Kitty had said that she was helped out by a hugely competent committee, including Reggie and her daughter Catherine.

‘Her catchphrase was, “make sure and get your entries in on time!”’ said Reggie, ‘and as a person, she was lovely to deal with, she always had a pleasant smile, and could deal with any situation without getting flustered.’

‘Horses were her main interest and when she’d be taking the entries on the phone, she’d know the name and breed, all in her head. She’d just run them off the top of her head. Her daughter Catherine has the same ability and interests, and we’re lucky in that we have her. She’s left us with a big legacy.’

Kitty was a board member of the Irish Shows Association for 16 years until 2022, and paying their condolences, the organisation said she was an uplifting character with many wise words, often reminding members that ‘the wind screen is bigger than the rear-view mirror for good reason’.

She was also remembered by the Irish Draught Horse Breeders Association, of which she was a core member and the ‘backbone’ of their annual horse auction: ‘She was a great lady to go to for advice and her equine knowledge was vast.  As well as all this she was great to tell a horse story, funny, witty, kind, generous with her time and just an absolute genuine lady.’

Kitty was a recipient of a Southern Star West Cork Farming Award in 2023, something which Reggie says was one of the highlights of her career.

A native of Newcestown, her foray onto the Dunmanway Show Committee began when she promised to step in as secretary for just one month in the place of her friend, Helen O’Donoghue.

That month lasted about 27 years, and she was very deservedly recognised for her dedication and skills, drive, and vision. She grew up on a dairy farm with one sister and four brothers, and attended boarding school in Dunmanway which she ‘loved’.

She trained as a psychiatric nurse in Our Lady’s Hospital in Cork, and got married in 1969 after meeting her husband Billy in the Lilac Ballroom in Enniskeane.

The Marriage Bar prohibited her from working, a fact that she ‘hated’ she told The Southern Star.

‘The rules changed three years later, but by then I had two small kids and was really involved on the farm,’ she remembered.

Billy passed away in 2015, and they shared a love of horses. Kitty told the following story of his entry to the Royal Dublin Horse Show in 1967.

‘Billy was invited to enter, and he entered Enniskeane Countess. I remember he rode her to Enniskeane, put her on a CIE freight lorry to the city, then put her on the train to Ballsbridge, walked her across the road to the RDS and went on to win the championship.

That was his really big achievement,’ she proudly recalled. Billy went on to judge this championship on two occasions and for Kitty, the icing on the cake was when their son John went on to win the same title with a homebred mare, Enniskeane Flash, five generations on from Enniskeane Countess.

As well as raising a family and her tireless involvement with the agricultural show scene, Kitty was a home help for 20 years, and readily gave up her holidays from this role to help organise the show, a labour of love for her.

Kitty was also on the Board of the Irish Shows Association for 16 years and was involved in the Cork Summer Show where she, an avid knitter herself, was involved in reviving the arts and crafts side of proceedings along with Dr Ruth Quill. 

Kitty is remembered by her children Tim, John, Liam, Mary, Michael and Catherine, grandchildren, and her extended family, and condolences to her family were made by Reggie on behalf of the committee. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.