Downpatrick man in running for major countryside award

Downpatrick man in running for major countryside award

18 January 2012

A DOWNPATRICK businessman and rural champion has been shortlisted for a prestigious Countryside Alliance Award.

Albert Titterington is a contender for the sought after title of Ireland’s Rural Hero in the awards, which are often nicknamed the Rural Oscars.

He has been shortlisted because of his dedication to all countryside matters. The awards celebrate the characters, skills, traditions and enterprise of the countryside through the people who work so hard to sustain these values.

Albert introduced the Game Fair concept to Ireland by staging the first Irish Game Fair at Clandeboye Estate, outside Bangor. Since then he has been responsible for organising a series of annual Irish Game Fairs in Ireland making him the longest serving game fair director in the world.

This year’s game fairs will be held at Ballywalter, Shane’s Castle and Birr Castle, County Offaly. The Shane’s Castle fair will be the 50th staged by the Downpatrick man.

He is also at the forefront of Irish country sports and rural lifestyle journalism with his Irish Countrysports and Country Life magazine and web portal www.countrysports

andcountrylife.com and was one of the first academic researchers in the UK into the effects of environmentalism on consumers with over 20 internationally acclaimed published articles under his belt.

Judging has now commenced and the winners will be announced at the end of this month.

These winners will then proceed to the overall finals, which will be held in London on March 7.