Like a Gooch in high heels, a Kerry girl delivered a dressing down to the opposition, writes SEÁN Mac CONNELL
THEM KERRY people cannot stop winning in Dublin. Last Sunday it was their footballers and yesterday, Emir O’Shea, from Killarney, walked off with the Blossom Hill Ladies Day’s “Best Dressed Lady” competition at the Dublin Horse Show.
Not only that, but Emir is the wife of former Kerry footballer, Billy O’Shea, and yesterday she strode through the opposition with the same kind of style which saw Kerry demolish the Dubliners. She could be described as a Gooch in High Heels.
In fact, Emir had a tougher job than the footballers because she faced a record-breaking entry for the competition. Over 350 women, men and others took part in the event for a prize of a shopping trip to Milan with spending money and a holiday in South Africa.
She will need the hat she was wearing yesterday down there to protect her from the sun. It was the creation of her sister, Niamh Stack, and it came halfway down her back, almost covering her silver-gold linen bustier jumpsuit.
It was so large, in fact, it forced me to recall the old Fermanagh jibe about big hats. Anyone wearing one was greeted with the call: “Come out from under that hat, we know your legs.” Indeed, Emir was not the only Kerry raider to walk off with the prizes for the beautiful people on offer yesterday. Fellow townswoman, Norma O’Donoghue, won the prize of €500 for the “Most Creative Hat” from the House of Fraser.
Perhaps the best quip about hats uttered over the day came from compere, broadcaster Ashling O’Loughlin.
When one lady with an extremely tall hat which had wires and feathers and all kinds of structures on top she remarked: “If you are not careful you could get whiplash from that hat.”
But it was not all about hats yesterday. Some of the high-heeled shoes on display were awesome. Indeed, some of the ladies were towering over the stilt-walking clowns on parade.
So fair play then to the smart company which spotted a gap in the market. As the ladies were entering the showgrounds yesterday they were offered, free of charge, blister pads to prevent chafing of their heels.
There were suggestions going around the showgrounds here last night that Robert Splaine should take a trip to Kerry to suss out the equine scene there for next year’s Nations Cup for that is where they breed winners.