Covid-19 leaves brows furrowed as National Ploughing Championship cancelled

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar tries his hand at the Championship last year.

The National Ploughing Championships due to take place in September have been cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The National Ploughing Association (NPA) confirmed the cancellation of Europe's largest outdoor event but said it still hoped that there would be an opportunity to run ploughing competitions behind closed doors.

Almost 300,000 people and some 1,700 exhibitors attended last year's event in Ballintrane in Carlow which was also set to host this year's event.

NPA managing director Anna May McHugh said it was "a tough day" but that the "writing was on the wall" given the large number of people that attend the event annually.

We had an executive meeting yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and everybody's conclusion was the same that in the interest of public health and safety, it just wasn't an option. We were in touch with the Department of Agriculture and received all the various documentation that was available to us and the writing was on the wall really for us.

"When you think of the Leaving Cert in question and the GAA in question and all of those things, the Association could never live with the risk that if we had brought a second wave of the disease into Carlow, into the region, or spread it around the country. That's not something we want to be responsible for," she told RTÉ's Seán O'Rourke.

Ms McHugh said the economic impact of losing the event was in the region of €45m to €50m but stressed that this was a bigger issue than finances.

"The Ploughing is 90 years old next year and we are about the people. We have always been about the public, about the people that exhibit and take part. It's a tough day on our exhibitors because the economic impact of one ploughing event is in the region of €45 to €50m so that's huge."

"We are having to write to exhibitors this morning that we are just hoping to get an opportunity to sell their wares this year. That's heart wrenching," she said.

Ploughing Championship cancelled due to Covid-19

This year's National Ploughing Championship has been cancelled.

Europe's biggest outdoor event was due to take place in County Carlow from September 15 to 17 but it has been called off due to Covid-19.

Organisers say that they still hope that there will be an opportunity to run the ploughing competitions behind closed gates.

The loss to the economy is reported to be around €45m.

Yesterday organisers met to consider whether the event could go ahead within social distancing constraints.

Almost 300,000 people attended last year's event.

Meanwhile, Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice says farmers are under severe pressure.

He says: "With the price of livestock at the moment, beef especially and sheep, which most of these people that get farm assist come from, it is very difficult for them at the moment."