Barking up the right tree for good cause

CLARE man Paul Dignam is a humble champion.

In the grounds of Our Lady’s former psychiatric hospital in Ennis on Saturday, the Flagmount man attributed winning the first-ever Irish Christmas Tree Throwing Championship to “pure chance”.

Just before 3pm on Saturday it looked as if Polish man Marek Wogal would win the competition, which is based upon age-old lumberjack traditions and is commonplace across Germany and Austria.