Record turnout as Plough Queen keeps it in the family

A RECORD 208,000 people attended the three-day National Ploughing Championships which were held in glorious weather conditions at Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny.

National Ploughing Association managing director Anna May McHugh also announced last evening next year’s championship will be held on the Fennin farm in Cardenton, Athy, Co Kildare, on September 22, 23 and 24.

That means “The Ploughing” is going home because Athy was the venue for the very first championships in 1931. It cost £9.3.6 to run compared with well over €3.5 million for this year’s showpiece.

Attendance figures for the 2008 event broke all records. The weather was glorious and brisk business was reported among the 900 trade exhibitors. Ploughing conditions were also good.

Ms McHugh said she was extremely happy at the success of the event. They were concerned about the wet weather in recent weeks. But everything turned out well in the end.

Asked what saint she had prayed to ensure there was sunshine, Ms McHugh said she had everybody praying for fine weather.

Regarding traffic flow, she said they had 400 acres of car parking available but bringing that number of people into rural Ireland meant there were going to be traffic delays. “While the gardaí worked very closely with us, and reviewed the situation each evening, I can not make any excuses for delays in traffic. There were so many people coming in here from as early as half-past-six in the morning,” she said.

It was a marvellous occasion for the McHugh family with Anna May’s daughter, Anna Marie, being crowned the Queen of the Plough. She competed for Laois in the ploughing, as she has done for several years.

It was her first time winning the title, but she had come tantalisingly close previously, missing out on one occasion by a single mark.

“I am delighted,” said the Ballylinan woman, who is press officer with the National Ploughing Association, after taking the title in the competition in which there were 13 other contenders.

“It was always an ambition of mine to win the title, but when it happened this year it was a great surprise,” said the former Macra Queen of the Land.

Anna Marie followed a family tradition in the Queen of the Plough event as her aunt, Eileen Brennan, won the title in 1963 and 1964.

People greeted her with delightful good humour during the day as “Your Majesty”, but in fact she is not the only national ploughing champion in her household as her husband, Declan Buttle, of Blackwater, Co Wexford, is a two-times (2003-2004) winner of the Under-28 reversible competition and a former winner of the Kverneland World Challenge (2000).

Glanbia, sponsors of the Munster Schools Rugby teams and Youth’s Cups under the Avonmore milk brand, had the Heineken Cup displayed on its stand, while John “The Bull” Hayes, Ian Dowling and new Munster signing, Justin Melck, were on hand to meet with rugby followers and sign autographs.

It was a special occasion for Melck, whose family has a 5,000 hectare beef, sheep and cereals farm on South Africa’s west coast.

The fifth generation of his family to work the farm, he said he was well used to the dusty conditions that prevailed at The Ploughing in Cuffesgrange.

“It is what it is like back home — sandy and windy,” he explained.

Justin said he had seen a lot of farms since his arrival in Ireland and was very impressed with the grassland. “I love the outdoors and the farming lifestyle,” he said.