Naked ambition: Ballivor man’s bid for National Culchie title

Ballivor man Damien Reilly will represent Meath this weekend in the National Culchie Festival in Mohill, Co Leitrim, where he will compete as the 'Naked Culchie’. He was at the launch of the festival in Temple Bar, Dublin, last week with comedienne Katherine Lynch, in character as the Naked Culchie, with his guitar, wellies and just a pair of underpants. Damien entered the competition after hearing about it from Mattie Finnegan from Trim who won the competition 10 years ago. As a part-time singer and comedian, Mattie thought Damien would suit the festival perfectly. Damien was selected to represent Meath in the Culchie Festival, which, he said, is a bit like the Rose of Tralee. The Ballivor man had seen the photos of the Naked Cowboy in the United States and thought it would be a good idea to do something similar and that’s how the idea of the 'Naked Culchie’ was born. He will have plenty of support from the local area with a large group travelling to support him as he takes to the stage on Saturday night for his interview and party piece. This year marks the 21st birthday of the first Culchie Festival and the events calendar is packed brim full of fun events which will include The Leitrim Super Gran competition, Matchmaking of Culchies and festival escorts, the Culchie a la Crème competition, the King of the Culchies competition, Junior Culchie competition, and the Women in Wellies competition. The Great Honda 50 Run, a charity motorbike event, will take place on Sunday, taking in some of the most beautiful scenery in Ireland as it journeys through the highways and byways of Leitrim. The festival will be overseen by the current National C|ulchie, Leo Finn from Galway. This year’s festival is being held in conjunction with the Mohill Horse Fair which has rapidly established itself as one of the premier horse fairs in Ireland. Now seen as the male version of the Rose of Tralee, the festival started back in 1989 in Clonbur, Co Galway, and has found itself in many towns and villages throughout Ireland in its search to find this unique phenomenon which exists among us - 'the culchie’, or 'village character’ as he was known in years past.