A homecoming for King Kehoe

Wexford’s three times world champion Martin Kehoe was hailed as “a ploughing icon” by the Agriculture, Food and Marine Minister Simon Coveney when the programme for next week’s festival was announced on the site at Heathpark.

National Ploughing Association chairman James Sutton also paid tribute to Kehoe, winner of 12 national titles on the trot, and all the other plough men and women from Wexford who have achieved so much on the competitive furrows over the years.

He suggested that this year’s Championships should be an occasion for people to remember and celebrate the remarkable achievements by Kehoe and other Wexford competitors in the event.

Martin Kehoe’s presence at the launch underlined the man’s passion for ploughing and his dedication to what he describes as a sport.

It was a day of blue skies and glorious sunshine with the result that the tillage fields of Wexford were humming around the clock with the sound of machinery as farmers worked hard to save the harvest after the wettest summer in a quarter century.

Despite busy workloads, the Foulksmills man and other tillage farmers hopped off their combine harvesters to attend the launch and acknowledge the return of the Ploughing Championships to the county.

Kehoe played a role in securing the site for this year’s Championships after trying over several years for a suitable location. Indeed, the search had been going on since “The Ploughing” was last held in Wexford back in 1998 when Ballycarney was the venue.

Martin Kehoe resides about 10 kilometres from the O’Dwyer and Kehoe families who will be the host farmers for next week’s gathering.

He suggested Heathpark would be a very suitable place for the national championships. The site owners and other local farmers co-operated and eventually the NPA agreed.

Delighted that “The Ploughing” is back in Wexford for the first time in 14 years, he said it will hopefully give a positive boost to the county. He said the site is comprised of pretty good ground. Most of it would be of light soil with a few small bits of it a little heavy.

Martin Kehoe is looking forward to the Championships where 330 competitors will contend for 19 national titles.

A legendary figure in national and world ploughing, his triumphs from Dromgold in Enniscorthy to Dunedin in New Zealand and from Crecora in Limerick to Nakura in Kenya, are worthy of repetition and so are those of his family. His father William won the senior tractor title in 1955 having crossed over from the horses, where he won four national championships.

Martin Kehoe’s first major victory was in 1965 when he won the Wexford under-21 county title. That same year he represented his county at national level, winning the minor honours at Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.

He won his first senior title in Tullamore in 1987 and successfully defended it every year up to 1998, when he took the last of his 12 successive championships at Ballycarney in his home county.

The Foulksmills man represented Ireland nine times in the world contest, winning in 1994, 1995 and 1999.

Martin and his wife Karen have five children and each of them have also competed successfully in ploughing matches.

Two of their sons have won national titles. Willie John was successful in the senior tractor class in 2007 and 2009 while Martin (Jnr) won the under 28 championships in 2006.

His daughters have also triumphed in the “Queen of the Plough” competition. Michelle Kehoe won the title on four occasions while her sisters, Christine and Eleanor, have been successful on one occasion each.

Martin Kehoe has also brought that tradition of excellence to his own farming and to the family business, Kehoe Farming, which was set up in 1977 and produces feed and animal bedding products.

He is the managing director and his sons Willie John and Martin (Jnr.) are also directors of the company, which is based in Foulksmills, where the family has been farming for generations.

Martin Kehoe also has nine world gold medals for tug o’war, as well as two World Games gold medals, six European gold medals and numerous national titles.

A celebrated anchorman, he pulled with Clongeen when they won the European championships in Fermoy in 1969. He later pulled with the noted Boley team with whom he won most of his awards in that sport.

A versatile sportsman, he had played football, hurling, rugby, and successfully taken part in weightlifting and sheaf throwing challenges.

He will be in Heathpark next week hoping to see furrows that are straight and uniform in the competitive quest for national honours.

He has always made it clear, however, that there is a big difference between the type of sport ploughing that wins competitions and the work ploughing that takes in the fields around the country where the focus is on speed and covering a lot of ground quickly.

But, like every farmer, he likes to see good work being done at home too, even if there is no prize for it at the end of the day other than the satisfaction of a job well done and a crop that does well from the tilled land.