'Keep your eyes peeled' as Munster's tractor runs take to the roads

Normally, during the festive season, once darkness falls, kids, big and small, hold their breath and start watching out for magical moving vehicles with colourful flashing lights, but this Christmas it’s not Santa’s sleigh they’re hoping to catch a glimpse of, but our own native, Christmas Tractors of Ireland!

Santa takes cover from the rain pictured at the Light Up Limerick tractor run from Castletroy, Limerick Saturday night.

Over the years, Christmas tractor parades have become a feature of rural Ireland, representing the best of Irish ‘craic’ and community spirit. This year, though some night-time parades have been cancelled due to Covid, for others it’s still a case of ‘lights, cameras, action’ as illuminated fleets secretly take to the roads and upload footage of their festive convoys online for viewers at home and abroad.

In South Tipperary, the Christmas Tractors of Carrick on Suir usually attracts 20,000 spectators.