The Galway Races, the memorable seven-day Irish horseracing festival which inspired a WB Yeats poem (“flesh being wild again”) and a popular song, kicks off again today. There are complaints about high prices of hotels which a local councillor described as ‘overkill and opportunistic’; and there will be heavier security than usual with a ban on backpacks and large handbags, and physical searches, given the global situation.
The first meeting was held on 17 August 1869 which gives a Leo Sun Mercury with Sun square Jupiter Pluto in Taurus, which certainly fits an entertaining spectacle involving a confidently determined physical sport with much money won and lost at the bookies. No suprises HM Queen is a Sun Taurus given her keen interest. There’s a showbizzy, publicity-attracting Mars in Libra opposition Neptune in a thrills and spills, highly-strung and high-adrenaline square to Uranus. It’s a Fire Earth chart highlighting formidable energy and enthusiasm, not given to subtlety.
This year’s may be edgier than usual given the security concerns with tr Pluto square the Mars, as well as the Sun/Saturn midpoint so perhaps not quite as exuberant and laid-back as usual; maybe riskier for the horses.
Thank you very much Marjorie, you explain the Festival to a tee!
Thomas
Very enlightening to know all these things. Thank you.