It's that time of year, folks. Schools have returned, holidays have ended, the weather is changing (for better or worse depending on the day) and the run-up to the National Ploughing Week has well and truly begun.
Of course, this will be a Ploughing Week like no other.
Due to take place from the 15th-17th of September, the National Ploughing Championships were canceled in early May due to Covid-19.
Known as the largest outdoor agricultural event in Europe, the championships regularly see hundreds of thousands of visitors, thousands of exhibitors, and hundreds of competitors. And although it won't be taking place this year, it certainly won't be forgotten.
This year, RTÉ will mark Ploughing Week with the release of a new RTÉ Player exclusive. Plough On ... with Nuala Carey takes us to the National Ploughing Championships 2019/20 site in Ballintrane, Fenagh, Co. Carlow, to meet some of the people for whom a year without Ploughing will be a year like no other.
Nuala Carey - a broadcaster with a deep connection to this unique event - presents a new one-off special and meets a range of people who will miss this year’s event greatly.
First up are National Ploughing Championships organisers, mother and daughter powerhouse Anna May and Anna Marie McHugh, who speak about the impact of this year’s event cancellation.
"Everybody is saddened that it’s not happening but look we have to keep the flag flying and look forward to better times," says Anna May.
"We'll only have the qualifiers in early October," adds Anna Marie. "Hopefully fingers crossed and we'll select the competitors that will take part in Worlds in Ireland in 2021."
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Next, we meet Seamus Quirke, a young tillage farmer in Carlow, and Ailish Osborne, a young beef and tillage farmer from Kildare, share memories of attending the event over the years, from getting lost to sneaking in for free in the early days.
Ailish has just completed an Agricultural degree in Waterford and had qualified to compete in the novice class at this year’s National Ploughing Championships.
Seamus Quirke’s own family farm make up part of the Ploughing site mostly car parking. The Nolans, the Brennans and the Quirkes are the farm owners who together make up the total ploughing site which is over 700 acres.
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Gary Ireland, 5-Nations Reversible Champion 2019, guides Nuala through the event from a competitor's view, and chats about practicing in the lead-up and the early starts to beat the ploughing traffic.
Gary is one of the most popular people you could meet at Ploughing and travels internationally to worlds to support his fellow ploughers each year. Gary was competing annually at the Championships for 20 years and only bagged his first win two years ago.
Elsewhere, Jason Hegarty of Gordon Hegarty and Sons Ltd, based in Tullow, discusses the commercial impact of not being able to exhibit and the daily Covid-19 challenges for the business.
To wrap things up, RTÉ presenters Marty Morrissey and Damien O’Reilly chat with Nuala about what they believe will be missed most about the cancellation of Europe’s biggest outdoor event.
"The Ploughing Championships is a celebration of the end of the harvest, and that’s what farmers are really going to miss this year," says Damien.
Plough On ... with Nuala Carey | Available now on the RTÉ Player
