Whelans all set to keep family's Ploughing legacy alive
George and Suzanne Whelan with their mother Ann at Whelan Plant Sales, Barefield, Co Clare. Photo: Eamon Ward
It’s a family affair at Whelan Plant Sales — and they wouldn't have it any other way.
Siblings Suzanne, George Jr and Alan run the show at their construction machinery dealership in Barefield, a few miles outside the Clare county town of Ennis. Their other sister Aisling helps out at the company’s Ploughing Championships stall every year and her husband Gerry drives the Whelan transport lorry. Mother Ann still works part-time.
One person is missing, though: dad George Sr, who sadly passed away last August, just a few weeks before the 2025 Ploughing.
“The Ploughing was always really his thing,” Suzanne recalls. “He started us going to that show, he was always heavily involved in it. So last year, we didn’t go because it was too close: he’d only passed away in the last few days of August. It wouldn’t have felt right, and there was just too much going on.
“I have to say, the Ploughing Association were very accommodating and fair: they just moved our stand to this year. So now we feel like we have to go back, bigger and better than ever. That’s what he would have wanted us to do.”
These days they’re official dealers for Hyundai, Kubota, Bomag and Dameo, selling new and used plant and heavy equipment. The Barefield dealership is extensive and very impressive, row after row of gleaming heavy metal waiting impassively for a buyer.
But this great oak began, as is often the way, with a humble little acorn in the ancestral home of Doonbeg, West Clare (perhaps better-known as “Trump Country” these days, we jokingly suggest…).
George explains: “We’re here in Barefield since 1999, but our parents started the business in Doonbeg in 1979 or ‘80. Our old depot was there. We sold second-hand machines until ’94, then took on Hyundai new, did five years at home with that and finally moved here. This is more centralised: previously every machine had to pass over and back to West Clare, and that’s adding two hours of work. And the roads aren’t great either!”
The company has been attending the Ploughing since 1994 and have, he adds, had “good success with it over the years”.
Their expo initially promoted Hyundai (construction equipment, wheel loaders, mini-diggers), then from 2004, Kubota mini- and large excavators and wheel-loaders, and now also Bomag compaction equipment and pavers.
These are big units to shift back and forth – and as the song says, it’s a long way from Clare to here (“here” this year being Screggan outside Tullamore). So there’s a lot of logistics to handle.
“We take up maybe 15 items every year,” Suzanne says. “Popular items, or if there’s something new. This is our first year showcasing Bomag, so it’ll be a big push with that. We bring everything to the venue the week beforehand, set up a stand. We have a marquee, a seating area, you know, tea and coffee. You’re given a space, say 20 metres by 18 or whatever. It’s a bit of a squeeze to fit everything! And we keep bringing things in last-minute.”
At the far end of the show, George adds, “You have until Monday week to remove all your gear. Usually, we’ll try have it all gone by the Monday after the Ploughing ends. We transport it up and down ourselves in several runs. We’re so busy with the business in general, our lorry is going five days a week, and the Ploughing can put things out of sync. So this year we’ll probably hire someone to help.”
But it’s all well worth the extra work, they confirm. After all, as Suzanne points out, “We wouldn’t be doing it otherwise. It’s a big thing for us, to meet our customers: people who’ve spent hundreds of thousands with us and we haven’t ever seen them. It’s nice to put a face to the name, and they often come with their families which is nice. It’s good PR as well, people can physically see what we’re selling.”
George says: “Over 200,000 people visit the Ploughing, and of that, five or six thousand would be relevant to us. About 50% of those we talk to are existing customers. A lot of our stuff is sold without meeting the purchaser, but many will go to the ploughing, as a day out, and we get to meet them there.”
This is their third show of 2026, after expos in Dublin and Punchestown: those were, George says, “successful enough, we met a good few new people we weren’t doing business with and plenty of existing customers too.”
The Ploughing, though, is the big one – especially if the sun is shining. He adds, “If you get bad weather, it can be a disaster. But if you get good weather, it’s the best show in the world.”
Do they get time, we ask, to wander around the site and enjoy the event themselves?
Suzanne laughs: “Yes and no! You’d be worn out actually, just on your feet all day, talking to people. It’s go-go-go.”
George adds: “I would in the mornings, maybe. The Ploughing has changed over the 30 years we’re doing it: it starts and finishes earlier. So you can get away, back to the hotel and shower and a bit to eat, earlier than before. But then you have to be on the road the next morning for six.
“As for the actual ploughing, we rarely get to see it!”
