A record 185,000 people attended the National Ploughing Championships near Tullow in Co Carlow over the past three days.
The competitions concluded this evening with John Treacy of Carlow and John Whelan of Wexford qualifying to represent Ireland at next year's World Ploughing Events in the Czech Republic.
President McAleese and the new Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, attended the festival this afternoon.
Ms Coughlan said that, as the first female minister for agriculture, she would bring about some changes and would focus on marketing quality Irish food and promoting consumer choice.
