Archers had their sights set on Co Laois over the weekend for a festival that celebrated tradition and precision
Aishling Smee from Black Castle Archery Club. Photograph: Alan Betson
But this was a festival of the sport in general, so drew everyone from traditional archers, who also dress in the old style, to plain-clothes users of the modern “compound” bow, with its carbon fibre and levers, which can cost thousands of euro. A steel fabricator and welder in real life, Jenei now represents his adopted home of Co Laois, which if the map of Ireland were an archery target, would be close to the bull’s eye.
Not everyone agreed. “Ah, I like your woods – they’re nice, bright woods,” said Jason Corcoran from Limerick in friendly disagreement. A side effect of field archery, clearly, is that it makes you a forestry aficionado.The venue for the festival, Fior Bhia Farm, was no ordinary forest. It’s “a fully biodiverse, agri-forest” farm, the only one of its kind in Ireland, according to Mairead Guinan, sister of Brendan, who runs it.
The free-range archers who gathered there at the weekend were offered some unusual targets to shoot at, including a Turkish-style one that looked a bit like a guitar. They had to hit this from 90 metres. Few succeeded.
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