Ploughing, it's just too good for busy people to miss it
Patrick Quinn harvesting Oats on his farm near Newmarket on Fergus, Co Clare. Picture: Eamon Ward
If you want something done, ask a busy person: isn’t that what they say? As someone who is essentially doing two jobs, Patrick Quinn could hardly be any busier, but still finds time for full involvement in the National Ploughing Championships, both as participant and volunteer administrator.
Where even to start? He’s a farmer in Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare: mostly grass-based beef, but a few years ago Patrick also decided to sow crops, “just to diversify a bit”. He now plants oats in early April and harvests in August, then lets the land regenerate until the following spring.
He also owns and runs Shannon Tyre Centre, just outside the town centre, which is where we met Patrick to talk about another abiding passion in his life and demand on his time: ploughing.
He’s been competing for years, since the age of 16 or 17, and describes himself as “confident enough. I’m usually in the top seven or eight in my class, I have an Under 21 title, came second in U28 and third in the Junior A class.”
Not bad going, in a field (pun definitely intended) of dozens of rivals. And the county as a whole is holding its own too, as Pat explains: “We have a good tradition at the Ploughing, as long as it’s been going. We’ve had horse-ploughing champions, other titles here and there. It’d mostly be a few families who are really involved: the Frosts in Kilkishen, the Browns in Cratloe, Johnny White from Meelick.
“This year, apart from myself, this year we’re sending up Billy Moroney of O’Callaghan’s Mills in U21 – he’s ploughing for four years now and doing very well – and Paul Browne in Junior B, who was runner-up last year and is also our county chairman. Normally we’d have seven or eight competitors, but this year there was a bit of a lull: one is recently married and has a baby, another few are semi-retired. But hopefully we’ll build it up again.”
Being smack-bang in the middle of the Wild Atlantic Way means that Clare is stunningly beautiful but, as Patrick explains, not ideal for ploughing. Simply put, they don’t have the land for it, compared to Wexford and other counties: those have more sunshine, therefore more tillage, therefore bigger fields which are being ploughed anyway.
“They would have maybe 10 or 12 ploughing championships or matches every year,” Pat says, “whereas Clare would have one or two. Farmers here are reluctant to plough up their field for a competition. In those counties, they’re ploughing anyway.
“The other downfall in Clare is that we use quite small tractors for ploughing – small in today’s terms, anyway – because our fields are generally smaller and large modern machines are too big. But the smaller ones wouldn’t be widely available, and neither are the ploughs to fit that size tractor, the tyres, everything. So the machinery is fairly specialized, although I’d have a few contacts. And I’d be able to do a bit of the work on them myself. But it can be tricky.
“And we don’t get enough practice. Before I started sowing crops myself, we used to travel to Tipperary and get a field there off one of our friends. We’d drive up and down for maybe a week to practice before the nationals!”
Patrick has been volunteering in the Ploughing Association for years, as did his dad before him.
“It’s like the equivalent of a GAA county board,” he says. “You need people to volunteer to run things, simple as that.”
He previously served as chairman and secretary of the Clare Ploughing Association. That involved organising local matches – organising plots for outside competitors, feeding them and the judges, sorting out prize money – and a lot of paperwork in sending people forward to the nationals and arranging entry forms.
For the past three years Patrick has been Clare’s board member, or “director”, at the national level.
He says: “You go to board meetings three or four times a year, usually at the main office in Athy, and they have one meeting where the nationals are being held, so this year outside Tullamore. All our competitors at local level would help out at the nationals also, doing different jobs up there: judging, stewarding plots, directing traffic, whatever.
“You’d be busy for the three days. When you’re not competing, you might go judge another class or be supervising or stewarding or something else. Once you’re there, they’ll give you a job to do! It’s like anything, there’s plenty work to be done and a lot of volunteers needed.
“So it’s work during the day, but in the evenings, once it’s over, we all stay up for the week so there’s the social aspect. Everyone meeting up for a few days, which is lovely. And from about 4pm, you’d be free to go around the exhibits – or early in the morning, before competitions start.
“In my professional capacity, I’d be interested in the farm machinery and equipment, and wholesale tyre exhibitors. But really there’s something for every business and every aspect of life. It’s a family day out too. Kids love the animals and machines, there’s music and food and stalls, flowers for the garden, power tools, tractors … everything is there.”
