It's great to be back at the Ploughing as the world heads to Laois

The 91st national championships will have the added attraction of the 67th World Contest

John Murphy from Timoleague, West Cork,  adjusting his plough at the 2016 National Ploughing Championships at Screggan, Tullamore, Co Offaly. Picture: Dan LInehan

PEOPLE from the tillage lands of Tasmania to the furrows of Kenya and from one end of Ireland to the other recognise it as one of the great folk gatherings of modern times.

The event known as the national ploughing championships was held unbroken every year from 1931 to 2001, when it was called off due to the foot and mouth crisis, but it resumed the following year at Ballacolla in Laois.