National Ploughing Championships: Sunshine and tailbacks greet arrivals as record crowd expected

The National Ploughing Championships (NPC) returned with warm autumn sunshine and long tailbacks on the approaches to the host site at Ratheniska in Co Laois on Tuesday.

The largest event of its kind in Europe, some say, it is expected to attract 300,000 visitors over three days. The first day crowd of 91,200 was down on the record set pre-Covid-19 in 2019 of 102,500 for an opening day, but was welcomed by the organisers as proof the event can still pull in huge attendances.

The return of crowds was marked by a flyover from the Irish Historic Flight Foundation and a pair of De Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunks flew over the site.

The 900 acre site is the biggest to date with 1,700 trade stands and 37 kilometres of tracks.

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The event was opened by President Michael D Higgins who said the “ploughing” as it is called is not only an opportunity for rural people to meet, but a “great opportunity for urban people as well to become acquainted with the complexity of rural life”.

He used the opportunity to once again criticise retailers who have sought to squeeze primary producers on price. There were 350 commercial providers of vegetables in 2010, there are less than 100 now, he stated.

President Higgins said it would be “absolutely tragic” if the 77th General Assembly meeting of the UN in New York this week does not address the issue of food security and hunger. “Year after year the United Nations avoids dealing with the structural issues in the food crisis” which include the dependence on a small number of staple crops and the use of the futures market to trade in food commodities.??

He urged Taoiseach Micheál Martin to address the issue at the Assembly meeting in New York later this week.

There were hour-long queues of traffic down narrow roads off the M7 to access the site which looked resplendent in the sun and the recent dry weather.

The forecast is good for Wednesday though Thursday morning is likely to see heavy rain on site.

The gates did not open until 9am, but there were many who arrived on site after 6am to beat the traffic and get an early start.

Ireland’s EU commissioner Máiread McGuinness said she left her hotel room at 6.30am and arrived just before 8am. “We were wondering would it ever come back and even if it did, would anybody turn up,” she said.

“I thought I was ahead of the crowd but even I was behind so many people. All the worries that people have about energy and other things, though they are conscious of the difficulties, when they are here they are not complaining. They are having good fun and they are here to enjoy it.”

This year’s national championship doubles up as the World Ploughing Championship and there are competitors from 25 countries taking part. Those championships take place on Wednesday and Thursday.