John Keohane, West Cork taking part in the mounted vintage class at the National Ploughing Championships at Ratheniska, Co. Laois. Picture: Dan Linehan.
A pageant of ploughing with yearnings for global peace will take place on the tillage fields of Ratheniska in Laois over three days next week.
The 91st National Ploughing Championships and the 67th World Ploughing Contest will be held on a 900-acre site, where a Cairn of Peace will be unveiled at the opening ceremony on Tuesday.
Central to the cairn will be a rock reputed to be about 320 million years old. It was extracted from a quarry in Threecastles, Co Kilkenny, owned by the McKeon family, now 72 years in business and employing 45 people.
Dating from the Carboniferous era when Ireland was covered by a warm shallow sea, the stone was later cut and crafted at the company’s yard in Stradbally, Co Laois, a short distance from the ploughing site.
Kilkenny Blue Limestone is a sedimentary rock, much sought by experts in historic buildings for restoration projects not alone in Ireland but elsewhere in Europe.
Smaller stones from the other participating countries in the World Contest will be added to the Cairn of Peace in Ratheniska.
It will become a permanent memorial in keeping with a tradition associated with sites where the annual event is held.
The championships, which will be officially opened by President Michael D Higgins, will be particularly emotive this year.
That’s because the Republic of Ireland is hosting the World Contest one year ahead of schedule, due to a World Ploughing Organisation (WPO) decision to cancel the event that had been scheduled to take place in Russia last month.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was deemed a direct contraction of the WPO slogan — Pax Arva Collat — Let Peace Cultivate the Soil.
WPO general secretary Anna Marie McHugh said it was a massive honour for Ireland to host the Contest.
While peace will be at the core of the event, sustainability will also feature strongly in many exhibits and activities at the national championships.
The National Ploughing Association (NPA) will be promoting the use of recyclable products. Food waste will be converted into energy through an anaerobic digester.
There will also be solar panelled lighting towers, cardboard compactors, litter fines and waste separation operations on-site. Bank of Ireland will be giving out native Irish hedgerow plants.
Certa, formally known as EMO Oil, is providing the electricity for the event using Hydrated Vegetable Oil (recycled cooking oil).
Managing director Andrew Graham said it is especially proud to be supplying its low-carbon, commercial biofuel — HVO — to power all the NPA generators on site.
“This will reduce carbon emissions by up to 90% compared to previous years when diesel powered the generators.
“This is a great milestone for the event which is so central to Ireland’s rural community and we’re all greatly looking forward to an amazing three days in Co. Laois,” he said.
NPA managing director Anna May McHugh said the event provides a national stage for showcasing all things that are great about Ireland.
But it also brings together people from all sectors of society both rural and urban to enjoy three days immersed in country living, she said.
Exhibitors, buyers, and visitors from France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Uganda, Germany, India, Poland, Ghana, Belgium, New Zealand, France, Saudi Arabia, Lativa and the Netherlands will also attend.
Over 125 different stands will make up the Government of Ireland village where visitors will be able to apply for a passport, inquire about tax affairs with Revenue officials, claim social welfare allowances, apply for CAP and other farm payments, and get health tips from HSE experts.
Europe’s largest outdoor showcase of rural life, which attracted almost 300,000 people and featured up to 1,700 trade stands when it was last fully held in pre-Covid 2019, will cost over €7 million to stage this year.
Almost 40 km of steel trackway has been laid at the site, which has been turned into a fully serviced ‘town’ with shopping arcades, pavilions, exhibition spaces, and music platforms.
Local landowners have provided the land required for the showpiece, which will be stewarded by 2,500 volunteers from ploughing clubs countrywide and the local community.
Over 70 people attended the first local organising meeting in Ratheniska earlier year, reflecting the community support for the event.
It will be the sixth time for the NPA to host the World Contest, which will involve teams of the most skilled ploughing competitors in the world. Some 200 official international delegates and many supporters will also attend.
Mrs McHugh paid tribute to the host farmers and surrounding landowners for putting their land at the disposal of the NPA and all the patrons, volunteers, supporters and temporary staff that make the championships happen.
“The site is in good condition and ready for the hundreds of visitors over the coming days,” she said, adding that the event truly reflects the positive attributes of Ireland as a whole.
Gardai under Chief Supt John Scanlan have prepared a major event management plan, which will be activated at dawn next Tuesday across several counties in the midlands with the help of the Force’s traffic, aerial, mounted, and security units.
The traffic plan has worked successfully on previous occasions when the national championships were staged at Ratheniska and at the Electric Picnic concerts at nearby Stradbally.
Gardai and the NPA say they are confident that with the co-operation and patience of motorists, the plan will run as successfully as it has done in the past Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar and other political leaders including Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald are expected to attend along with diplomats, European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness, and members of the Oireachtas and European Parliament.
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