'I'm having a fashion show': How Anna Mae McHugh made sure the Ploughing had 'something for everybody'

Anna May tells Gráinne Ní Aodha how she ignored the nay-sayers in the 1980s and delivered a world-class event with a host of attractions from business advice to, yes, fashion shows

17-year-old Aaleasha Sweeney from Co Sligo competing in the Under-40 horse category with her grandfather Colman Cogan. While the competition is still at the heart of the National Ploughing Championships, Anna May McHugh's vision was always for a bigger event. Picture: Larry Cummins

Sat, 19 Sep, 2026 - 06:03

Gráinne Ní Aodha

Anna May McHugh said she remembers first suggesting that a fashion show should be included in the National Ploughing Championships.

Up until the 1980s, the Ploughing was solely geared at competitors and exhibitors, with mostly men in attendance, and “nothing for the women”.

McHugh, 92 — a secretary with the National Ploughing Association since 1955 and managing director since 1973 — said that when she first pitched a fashion show, one of around 30 men in the room stood up and said: “Chairman, I thought it was a ploughing match we were running.”

“I remember going down the steps of the stairs from that meeting when it was over, and I stood on the second last step, and I said ‘I’m having a fashion show’,” she told the Irish Examiner.

A fashion show debuted in 1981; now there is one on each day of the Ploughing.

McHugh’s legacy is having expanded the Ploughing to meet every need: there are play areas for young kids and hanging bar competitions for teens.

The legendary National Ploughing Association chief Anna May McHugh with President Catherine Connolly and competitor Killian Lydon and his father Brendan Lydon during the 2026 ploughing championships. Picture: Larry Cummins

There is a fun fair, a brewery, and shops selling toys, jerseys, jackets, hurleys, and footballs.

There are rows of food stalls selling the famed SOS cookies and jacket potatoes; there are seaweed skincare products, a horse-shoe throwing event and university representatives promoting courses.

TY students Evan Carney and Michael Heneghan from Coláiste Clavin on day three of the National Ploughing Championships 2026 at Screggan, Tullamore, Co Offaly. Picture: Larry Cummins

The most common freebies were the blue Naze nose strips, the tricolour shorts with “warm your hole with Murphy’s direct coal” emblazoned across plastic backsides, and thousands of lime-green tote bags handed out by Christian Literature Ireland.

“There is something for everybody here,” said Willie Bermingham, a Dublin firefighter living in Co Meath, who was at the Ploughing with his son William, 14, who had just become an owner of his first vintage tractor.

Willie shows off the pins on his leather cowboy hat, featuring a piece of straw given to him by a man at the Ploughing for good luck.

“A fantastic day out, we were blessed with the weather, surrounded by lovely decent people — it’s what Ireland is really about.”

The team from Kinletter, Co Donegal picked up silver medals in the 520kg team Tug 'o War event at the All-Ireland finals during the 2026 National Ploughing Championships at Screggan, Tullamore, Co Offaly. Picture: Larry Cummins

Aidan Webster, from Tramore in Co Waterford, said he was last at the Ploughing when he was 16, and returned this year with his children.

He said his daughter Chloe, 13, has “loved it”; she said she has enjoyed looking at the different stalls including the Defence Forces, engineers, and enterprise tents.

When she asked if they would be going again next year, he said they would have to.

“My other daughter went with her school yesterday and said it was the best day of her life.”

Helena Kelly, from Doonbeg Co Clare, came straight from a weekend of a visit from US president Donald Trump to their usual trip to the Ploughing.

“We go every year, it’s like religion,” she said, surrounded by a gaggle of children and teens.

Robot dog Phido entertaining the crowd at the Engineers Ireland space, one of the many National Ploughing Championships sidebars. Picture: Larry Cummins

“You have to go to the Ploughing and you have to go to the Tullamore show.

“The day is what you make it — you have to come and get a jersey and you have to get a bit of food and you have to queue for 30 minutes for the BPerfect cosmetics bus.

“No milking this evening but milking tomorrow morning, and back to school as well.”

Political ploughmen and women

Such is the pull of the Ploughing, and the time of year that it is held, that it has also become a political set-piece amid party think-ins, the Dáil’s return after the summer recess and ahead of the budget in October.

“If you talk nicely to [public expenditure minister] Jack Chambers, he might give me a bit of money,” social protection minister Dara Calleary joked when asked during a panel discussion about more funding for community and mental health initiatives.

Politicians use the opportunity to meet with farmers, hear people’s concerns, pose in a tractor and speak to the media while in a “rural Ireland uniform”.

The 'Kerry Cowboy' Séaghan Ó Súilleabháin tries his hand at the welly-throwing competition at the Portwest stand in association with Dunlop, with proceeds going to the charity SOSad. Picture: Larry Cummins

Asked if politicians turn up in their droves because they are afraid of the farming lobby, Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association president Denis Drennan said that wasn’t the case, and that farmers are “wise enough” to know that “shaking hands does not solve the problem”.

Lost skills revived

The Ploughing is also a good showcase of the skills and craftwork of many men and women; the quick hands of the sheep shearers, the slow patience of the competing ploughers, the calmness of the soda bread bakers.

Cork Plougher Jeremiah Delaney warned that interest in horse ploughing is dwindling and that his father JJ has trained people in the tradition to try to “keep it going”.

“The tradition is dying and we want to try and keep it alive,” he said this week.

The famous Ploughing figure Jerry from Kerry suggested that the rising cost of fuel may make the old Irish skill of horse ploughing more appealing.

“The diesel has gone up to €2.50 in Europe, cost of living has gone up...

“Elton John and Larry might be worth a lot of money next year,” he quipped.

Fiona Harrington, from Dublin but whose father is from the Beara Peninsula, said the Ploughing was a great opportunity to showcase lacemaking as an art and craft.

Garda Brendan Peters, Roads Policing, Thurles chatting with children at the Garda Information Stand during the 2026 National Ploughing Championships at Screggan, Tullamore, Co Offaly. Picture: Larry Cummins

As an example of how much time and dedication it requires, she picks up a small white lace butterfly made under the supervision of a master lacemaker in Burano, Italy, which took her a full week to complete.

Asked why she does it, she said it was a “really important” part of Irish history, which she wanted to honour by both making lace and speaking about it.

“What Irish lacemakers did in Ireland was remarkable, and they’ve never ever gotten the recognition they deserve. That is something I feel really strongly about, so similar to a lot of female history it kind of got buried a little bit,” she said.

She called for dedicated Irish lacemaking apprenticeships to be established in Ireland to encourage younger Irish lacemakers; she had an apprentice for six months funded through a European group.

“I would love to see an Irish version of that. Lacemaking is just not on the agenda at all.”

At the back of the Ploughing grounds, a gruelling few games of tug-of-war ensue between men in vintage rugby-like jerseys.

Bill Kehoe, from Boley, Co Wexford, watches on. He is a 27-gold medal tug-of-war champ from World Championships, European Championships, and World Games across 50 years (as well as 24 silver and 22 bronze), and has some incredible war stories to tell.

Security staff Julie Rawson, Ellie Guidera, and Andrew Weafer at the National Ploughing Championships 2026 at Screggan, Co Offaly. Picture: Larry Cummins

He remembers taking on a Canadian team who were twice as heavy as they were, and who “pulled us to the ground like we were ploughs” — but smiles as he remembers pulling them back in the second leg.

He said the Ploughing is a good chance to showcase the “great” sport — an intense and immensely watchable spectacle — to a larger audience.

“The likes of these get new teams out. I’ve played rugby, hurling, and football, and you get away with one or two players that is not up to it — but tug-of-war, you don’t.

“But you need dedication, you must have people of the same mental attitude and mental toughness to compete.”

Back in the bustle, two local women from the Irish Countrywomen’s Association sit behind a table full of knitted tea cosies and crochet dolls dresses, and reflect on how this year’s “busy” Ploughing has been great for Tullamore.

Sarah, Seamus, and James Roche from Blackrock, Cork, enjoying the National Ploughing Championships 2026 at Screggan, Tullamore, Co Offaly. Picture: Larry Cummins

Linda Cleary, whose own designs include a tea cosy of a bingo lady in an orange cardigan, and Pauline Cooney have worked on the pieces since Christmas and sell them in aid of a local nursing home, Ríada House, and said people have been eager to help the cause.

“We could be all there some day, I say we’re paying for our seat,” Pauline said, before heading out to bring back two 99s.

Business advice from Anna May

The success and scale of the Ploughing can be hard to fathom: Even ambassadors to Ireland and an EU commissioner marvelled this week at what is Europe’s largest annual outdoor agricultural event.

Just under a quarter of a million people trekked across 700 acres to get advice from companies on farming equipment, to buy jerseys, to eat food, meet neighbours, and think about their future careers.

Anna May McHugh’s business advice to people is simple: “If you’re at something, and you don’t like it, get out of it and try something else.

“But nothing is going to happen if you sit down on your bottom.

“You have to get up and work hard — and I worked hard.

Coláiste Choilm Ballincollig TY students Cillian O'Callaghan, Conor O'Sullivan, Eoghan O'Sullivan, and Diarmuid Hennessy at the Ploughing this week. Picture: Larry Cummins

“I never counted the hours I put into the Ploughing years ago when it was small, and I never anticipated that it would grow to the extent that it has grown.”

For Michael McQuaid, of Artistic Designs in Castleblaney, Co Monaghan, it was his first time at the Ploughing Championships.

His stall of woven and carved teak wood designs was constantly thronged, and he sold a massive black-painted sculpture of a jumping horse at €3,250; a roaring stag at €1,575, and two of Groot, a Marvel Comics tree-like character, for €975.

“It is phenomenal, exceptional in every sense,” he said of the Ploughing.

Asked if he would be returning next year, he replied: “Definitely.”

Out and about at the Ploughing