Flags to the mast at every turn

NEVER mind the dreaded swine flu. There has been an outbreak of a new disease called “poster-itis” at the three-day national ploughing championships in lovely Kildare.

An infectious condition, it has attached itself to every hoarding and pole on or near the 600-acre site. It is being spread by political parties, farm bodies, business people and many of the 1,000 trade stand operators at the great rural fest.

But there is no public health warning required for this epidemic beyond the fact that they all seem to have one thing in common — black and amber or green and gold coloured backgrounds.

It is clear the Kilkenny and Kerry colours are the new winning brands for people wanting to get a message across.

While the All-Ireland winning colours were everywhere and Liam MacCarthy was present, Sam Maguire could not attend due to pressing commitments in The Kingdom.

On top of this epidemic, followers of the Cork footballers and Tipperary hurlers were forced to plough a furrow through good-humoured barbs from many in attendance, including a new definition of NAMA — No All-Ireland Medals Again.

Despite electioneering from the respective Lisbon Yes and No lobbies, never mind the pleadings of candidates in the upcoming Irish Farmers Association elections later in the year, it all added up to an enjoyable mood.

Meanwhile, finding new solutions to old problems was the theme at the European Commission stand, where the star attraction was RuBot, a robot that can solve a Rubik’s cube in less than 1 minute and 50 seconds.

It has two cameras for eyes, can scan all six sides of the cube and solves the puzzle in less than 20 moves.

Martin Territt, director of the commission’s representation in Ireland, was anxious to point out, however, that the stand also features the most detailed photos of the cosmos ever taken and a hi-tech model of pedal powered electricity generation.

The exhibits celebrate the European Year for Creativity and Innovation and again emphasised how far the annual Ploughing Championships has come in terms of the diversity it offers the 160,000 lucky enough to attend.