WITH the evenings drawing in now and Halloween on the way, there is only one place every young person should be this weekend, and that’s the national conference: ‘The Rally,’ which is on in the Celtic Ross, Rosscarbery this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It will be three packed days from the Friday night start to the Sunday evening banquet, and there’s over 1,000 young people from all corners of Ireland coming to West Cork to enjoy it.

People often come up to me and say sure, there’s a big difference between our rally and a car rally and I say, not at all.

When you think about it, the Friday night is like the early stages: you get your room, get settled in, then make your way down to the lobby area.

You mix with others from the region, and then go in to the big hall to listen to the great band that night.

The Saturday is like the day two of the car rally, for it’s where the main work is done.

You start off strong in the morning, getting the big breakfast in to you of course, and you head to the farm tour or alternative tour.

After that, you head back to the hotel and in to the conference, which is where the important seconds are made up as you listen and engage with the speakers.

You head up to your room for a rest before pushing to stay ahead of the rest.

Then it’s back in the hall to see the ‘Club of the Year’ final and ‘Best New Members’, and after enjoying that you walk back out to the lobby area, dance the night away with a band and DJ playing till all hours of the night

Then it’s Sunday morning  and again, just like the car rally, the hard work is done and all that’s left is to enjoy a great Sunday in West Cork.

You start off strong again by embracing the brave soul within and taking a cold plunge to knock the cobwebs off.

When that’s done you check out some road bowling to see what it’s all about. You start to think about getting ready for the evening banquet, but you stop for a few minutes to listen to the trad music playing in lobby.

Like the final stage of the car rally, it’s time for the victory lap: you head in to the banquet and you listen to some great speakers before tucking into the best of West Cork produce.

And just like with a winning rally car coming though the town to a crowd of fans, you sit back to see the best of the Carbery Macra rally.

Then you wake up on Monday morning and think to yourself, wasn’t that the best ever!