REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE NATIONAL PLOUGHING CHAMPIONSHIPS MOGEELY, CO. CORK
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE NATIONAL PLOUGHING CHAMPIONSHIPS MOGEELY, CO. CORK, TUESDAY, 27th SEPTEMBER 2005
Dia dhíbh. Tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo i bhúr measc ag an taispeántas mór seo, ar ócáid comortaisí naisiúnta de Cumann Treabhta na hÉireann. Is ócáid mór é seo anois i saol muintir na hÉireann, go mór mór muintir na tuaithe, le daoine ag teacht ó ceann na tire.
It is good to be back again at the National Ploughing Championships and to see so many families and friends, urban and rural gathered here at Mogeely to enjoy this fascinating temporary town that is an exotic mix of carnival, shopping, people watching, business convention, technology showcase and of course ploughing. You have come from every single corner of this island knowing that you will find a warm welcome and a lively atmosphere. Like the traditional fairs, the Aonach of old but considerably more sophisticated, these Championships are the highlight of the rural calendar.
Dick and Maureen Forrest are our hosts and we thank them for allowing us the run of their farm for this prestigious event. Working behind the scenes is a formidable local and national team who have invested thousands of hours in planning so that we can enjoy it all at our ease. What gives them their energy is their passion for rural Ireland and their determination that these championships will continue to be a forceful ambassadorship for Ireland’s countryside and its farming way of life. We all know just how greatly Ireland has changed in recent decades and how profoundly rural Ireland has been affected by those changes, but, here we can also experience something that never changes and that is the pride the ploughmen and women take in their craft. Competition brings out the best in the participants in any sphere, and develops their skills to a very high level. So to be able to marry the two areas of craft and competition here, ensures a thrilling event for competitors and visitors alike.
Next year, we will celebrate the seventy-fifth year of the National Ploughing Championships.
Today we thank all those who invested in the Championships over the years and whose work and worry. Imagination and determination have given us one of Ireland’s best-loved events and most renowned successes. It is to their credit that we can boast that Ireland will again host the World Ploughing Contest in Carlow in 2006. The name of one person stands out across over forty of these past seventy-five years – the driving force, in fact a force of nature, Anna May McHugh. To Anna and her team we say again - Well done and thank you for this wonderfully varied and fascinating Championship. Credit and congratulations to the landowners for making their farms available, the local community, the competitors and all the State Agencies and commercial enterprises for the support that they have given. Each of you can rightly claim pride in the success of these unique days.
I wish each competitor every success. I know the competition will be very keen this year with the two Johns, John Tracey of Carlow and John Whelan of Wexford, just back from the World Ploughing Contest in Prague - congratulations to John Tracey on winning his fifth silver bowl.
And to the victors of this year’s national competition, good luck in your short journey to Carlow for the 2006 World Ploughing Contest. The highlight of this occasion is of course the ploughing competition. It is a marvellous showcase of farming skills and pride in farming as a profession. The 300 competitors who have fought their way through the preliminary events to be here will be competing for the honour of becoming national champions.
Finally, and as an aside, it would be remiss of me in the heartland of Cork Hurling, adjacent to the parish of Cloyne, not to congratulate the Rebel County on its magnificent achievement in the Hurling Championship and the Camogie and of course the jury is still out on the Ladies Football…
Go raibh maith agaibh arís as ucht an cuireadh chun bheith anseo, agus go n-éirí go geal libh go léir.