Man shares dad’s home movie footage of 1965 donkey derby

One fascinating day in June 1965, Hans von Prondzynksi came in to Mullingar from his home in Knockdrin, to enjoy the first ever ‘Mid-Summer Festival’ taking place in the town – the forerunner to the famed Mullingar Steak Festival.

Happily, Hans had with him a home-movie camera, and he shot footage of the ‘Bridge to Bridge’ donkey derby that was one of the 10-day festival highlights.

Fifty-eight years on, Hans’s son, Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, former president of DCU, has made that marvellous footage available to readers of the Westmeath Examiner, who should gain much enjoyment at getting the chance to peer through this window into the past.

Some may even recognise some of the faces in the video – and given that many of them are actually of young people, there may be readers who will be able to identify themselves.

The Mullingar of 1965 looks amazingly similar to how it looks today, especially the views shot westward, from Austin Friars Street towards Pearse Street.

The donkey derby took place at 4pm on Sunday June 27. The prize fund, which amounted to £100, was sponsored by Carling Ulster Breweries.

The donkey derby was, however, criticised after the festival, and the Westmeath Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals described it as “a deplorable spectacle” and an event that was “not a credit to our town or any of us”.

The organisation informed the Westmeath Examiner that they wanted regulations that were in place in other locations applied in Mullingar, which would have restricted the races to grass only and restricted the jockeys to those weighing under seven stone. The organisers said it was too late to change the rules.

Hans von Prondzynski of a family of Polish nobles, and his German wife, Irene, bought Knockdrin Castle and estate in 1960, moved in a year later and reared their four children between there and Germany.

In an interview with the Westmeath Examiner two years ago, Ferdinand, his son, recalled of the Ireland of that time: “It was a very different kind of life: back in those days you would take your car to Mullingar and leave your keys in the ignition when you went out shopping; you never locked the house door – ever, not even at night.

"And then there were interesting things: in Mullingar every Wednesday, I think it was, the town centre was closed because the cattle market was held on the street. There was no self-service in shops, so everywhere, you were served behind from behind the counter – even groceries. So we weren’t used to that at all but it was an adventure.”

He continued: “When I was about seven years old, my parents would go into town to do the shopping and I would just wander around Mullingar as a seven-year-old. You’d never let a kid do that today. But it was perfectly safe.”