A WINTER that for all intents and purposes, lasted more than two years is finally at an end, and the ball is in and the game is on as the Irish summer polo season gets underway around the country.

Teams battled it out against the stunning backdrop of the Wicklow Mountains in the first tournament of the Irish polo season at Bishopsland Polo Club Kildare Ireland

The Wexford team were the winners of the Hollywood Inn tournament at Bishopsland Polo Club

The ball is thrown in and the game is on to start the summer season at Bunclody Polo Club in Wexford Ireland

While Bishopsland Polo Club in the ‘Thoroughbred County of Kildare’ opened the season in Ireland last May with the County Wexford team winning the Hollywood Inn Cup sponsored by a favourite establishment in nearby County Wicklow, the Model County’s Bunclody Polo Club opened their ground with the Bunclody Cup early in June. The season’s openers moved on next to the home of one of Europe’s oldest clubs in the award-winning Phoenix Park, the All Ireland Polo Club in Dublin Ireland.

Bunclody Polo Club’s Robert Hogg (l-r), Tyrone team patron Eamonn Laverty and his wife Mary, Wexford’s Tara Moore and Paddy Casey let their hair down after a day of polo in Wexford Ireland

The teams line out for the exhibition match at the All Ireland Polo Club in Phoenix Park, Dublin Ireland

Argentine Open star Luis Lalor (right maintains tight focus on the ball along with Michael Connolly, Colm Kelliher and Siobhan Herbst in the exhibition match at the All Ireland Polo Club, Phoenix Park Dublin Ireland

Just days before the Stuarts Tournament would open the season on the historic ground beside Dublin Zoo, one of the leading lights of the Argentine Open Polo Championship inaugurated the Lalor Cup along with daughter Gina in a single match played against Ireland. Luis Lalor is a descendant of the Irish Diaspora, his family immigrating to Argentina in the 1840s. The star of Argentine polo has featured on winning team sides across the sport and in the ‘Olympics of Polo’ at Palermo in Buenos Aires.

Tyrone team patron and All Ireland Polo Club past president Eamonn Laverty accepts the new Lalor Cup from Luis Lalor just after winning the exhibition match

Television producer Shane Brennan (left) and one-half of the colourful pop duo Jedward give a thumbs up to the spectacle of the exhibition match at the All Ireland Polo Club in Dublin Ireland’s Phoenix Park

His Excellency Giovanni Buttigieg, Ambassador of Malta in Ireland presents the Stuarts trophy to the Wexford team

While the Irish summer weather continues to play its usual havoc, the season recently opened at Curraghmore Polo Club in County Waterford. Polo is a sport played hard by day and celebrated by night, no matter the weather and anywhere on the island of Ireland.

The 2022 Irish tournament season dates are on Facebook at the All Ireland Polo Club, Bishopsland Polo Club, Bunclody Polo Club, Curraghmore Polo Club, Polo Wicklow and Northern Ireland Polo Club.

Tags: Arts & Culture Places To Go Visit Ireland

Image credits: Kim Mullahey