There was a time when you could smell the blacksmiths at work on approach to Smithfield Square on fair day. Colm Kiernan can remember that time.
“I’m coming down here all my life,” the 82-year-old said, wearing a straw hat and standing in front of the Generator Hostel on Smithfield Square on Sunday.
“It’s changed beyond recognition in the past 30 years. There was none of these buildings.”
Mr Kiernan, from Fenian Street in the south inner city, gestures in the direction of the Liffey. In years gone by, the square was populated by the likes of fruit and vegetable shops, traders selling horse feed and a breaker’s yard filled with old car parts.
Smithfield Horse Fair – which used to be held on the square on the first Sunday of every month – was one of the best fairs of its kind in decades past, said David Mulreany, standing next to Mr Kiernan.
“People that worked [with] animals all around Ireland used to come here to buy the best animals you could find. This was the place to be, this was the hub.
“It was showing the authenticity of the city,” Mr Mulreany, from the Liberties, added.
On Sunday morning, horse owners travelled to Smithfield from different parts of Dublin, the rest of the country and abroad to vouch for a tradition that, they say, is under threat. Under current laws, the fair can only be held twice a year.
Generations of families mingled and dodged in the crowd, while others steered horses up and down the cobbled square, on saddles or two-wheeled gigs.
“[We’ve] come down here in protest, of the treatment that the horse owners are getting from Dublin City Council,” said Mr Kiernan, who acts as chairperson of Smithfield Horse Fair committee.
Brooke Mooney (15) was sitting atop her horse Pirate on Sunday afternoon, saddleless and dressed in athleisure. Ms Mooney, from Finglas, came to Smithfield “to try and change the bylaws, and get the protests back up and running,” she said.
Smithfield Horse Fair committee have taken issue with a number of bylaws passed in recent years concerning the running of the fair – including the requirement to provide a PPS number and a payment of €10 when applying for a casual trading licence. Committee members say this is not common practice at other fairs across the country.
Organisers have also claimed that the council failed to honour its agreement to facilitate the fair on the first Sunday of September.
Dublin City Council had not responded to queries at the time of publication.
“This is our practice and our heritage and our culture,” said Mr Mulreany, who sits on the Smithfield Horse Fair committee. He compared the current state of the fair to the decline in street trading on Moore Street. “The heritage is gone out of Dublin.”
John Morgan (58) was walking up through the square on Sunday afternoon, leading a horse by its harness. “This is a traditional thing, going on for hundreds of years ... Of course it’s important. I’m coming here the last 50 years.
“[When] I was eight years old ... I jockeyed my first horse in here,” he added.
Peter Murdoch, from Belfast, idled on the square on Sunday morning, carrying saddles across his shoulders.
The fair is a tradition that should be protected, he said. “It keeps the wee fellas off the streets, and gives them a purpose.”
Sarah Rudford, from Finglas, stood by a buggy carrying her son Amias on Sunday afternoon.
[ The Dublin storytelling night that’s gone globalOpens in new window ]
“We’re just out for the day – and we just bought a horse,” she said, holding to a miniature Falabella horse with a harness.
They haven’t named the Falabella yet. “He’s going to name him,” nodding to her young son. “It’s his ... more his size.”
