Wexford ploughing legends

The president of the NPA, Jimmy Grainger of Kildare, has a long and varied tenure with the association as both competitor and judge before scaling the heights in the administrative side.

The chairman, James Sutton, of The Ward, Co Dublin, carries on a long family tradition. His father, Brendan, also represented Dublin on council and was teammate with the great Willie Murphy for many years.

Like hurling and football, ploughing runs in families and while we now have competitors from every county in Ireland, certain counties have maintained a pretty dominant position for years.

Wexford still maintains a strong presence with the Kehoes, the Donnellys and the Whelans to name but a few. Then there are the Kings of Louth and the Reillys of Galway.

For many years, Kerry were a dominant force when names like Slattery, Egan and O’Mahoney spring to mind. However, they have been slipping with some time and like the football, Cork are taking over the mantle with the Coakleys, O’Driscolls, Harrington, O’Flynn and O’Donovan, to name but a few.

However, the family showing most to the forefront during recent years are the Treacys of Carlow, with three generations in competition and all getting into the frame.

Since he hit the headlines in the early 1970s, Johnny Tracey has been national champion on numerous occasions, and has represented the country on the world stage ten times, and practically always finishing in the top three and only missing gold by a fraction of a point on one occasion.

His son Eamonn, the present national champion, has represented his country on four occasions, winning gold for Grassland, a few years ago.

Eamonn’s son, Sean, has won the U-21 class for the past few years, so if that’s not in the blood what is.

As the poet Patrick Kavanagh said: “The Plough is eternal and not being disturbed by the coming and going of Kings.”

Down through the years, there are many events set-up to showcase our country and most especially the agricultural side, but the plough has stood the test of time, and who could have visualised 80 years ago that what was started on such a small scale would mushroom to such an extent that it would command and attract the attention, the support and respect of the entire country.