The Ploughing lifts the gloom for farmers as thousands throng championships
Crowds enjoying bright sunshine on the first day of the National Ploughing Championships at Screggan, Tullamore, Co Offaly. Picture: Larry Cummins
Tens of thousands of people flocked to Co Offaly for a Ploughing Championships that is being held after a tough year for many farmers.
Yet, amid fuel cost rises and before the cold winter months set in, the Ploughing offers the opportunity to get together for a fun day out.
Increasingly becoming more of a social rather than a business event, young families and throngs of teens wandered between stalls, trying games and collecting freebies.
A long queue had formed outside O'Neills before 10am, with some students who were part of school groups glad for the day outside of the classroom.
Of the 225,500 visitors to the Ploughing last year, 57,000 were secondary school students, and a further 22,500 were children.
Martha McCarthy, from the Macra youth organisation, said the Ploughing offers a good chance for young people to see what farming life has to offer.
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"It's good for young people to be able to mix and try new things," she said.
President Catherine Connolly shook the muddy hands of some young and older competitors on the outskirts of the event on Tuesday.
"My hands are dirty, you don't mind," said Jeremiah Delaney, from Macroom in Co Cork to the president as he shook her hand, to which she laughed.
He and his father JJ Delaney talked about the importance of training others to plough in order to keep the tradition alive.
Some of their trainees are competing in the Ploughing later in the week.
"The tradition is dying and we want to try and keep it alive," Jeremiah said.
"When I started ploughing first there were 18, 19, 20 bars of horses and now we're down to eight or nine or 10.
"We're interested in trying to train new people to it, we're not doing it for the money obviously, it's for the tradition and trying to keep it going."
Aaleasha Sweeney, 17, from Riverstown, Co Sligo is competing in the Under-40 Horse Plough Class.
She came seventh last year, and talks lovingly about caring for the horses, Ned and Ted, and about being able to spend time with her granddad Coleman by doing it.
"Definitely give it a go, I didn't see myself doing it but I gave it a go and now I'm here," she said.
Coleman said the ground is very dry after the hot spell over the summer, which he said made it harder to break.
"The clay is pure dust, no rain has come enough to penetrate the ground, it leaves it very hard to plough," he said.
"There's a bit of skill in it, but that's why we're here."
The murmurs of a tough summer that has seen fodder sources depleted and the pressures of high fuel and fertiliser prices, are on the fringes of the Ploughing during what is a pleasant day out for families.
Conor O'Leary of the Irish Farmers' Association said that food prices will go up if the pressure continues on farmers.
"We'd have a considerable contractor bill and our contractor rates I'm guessing they will be up 20% on a year-on-year basis," he said.
"We can't say no because it's cost incurred by them, the cost of doing business has become quite incredible.
"It's going to come into everything, and it'll come into food too. I think everybody will feel the pinch of it, it's not just farmers."
