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ONLY MARGINALLY YOUNGER than the Oscars, but with a slightly less proscriptive dress code — the 83rd National Ploughing Championships kicked off in earnest at Ratheniska in Co. Laois early this morning.
President Michael D Higgins performed the official opening earlier — and over 200,000 people will have paid a visit by the time the tents are struck on Thursday evening.
In the meantime, the great, the good and the otherwise of Irish life will be criss-crossing the temporary plastic avenues of the site for the next few days — catching up with old friends, trying to do a bit of business, or asking for votes (sometimes all three at once).
We were up at the crack of dawn to catch all the day’s action…
Here’s what we learned….
You’d be forgiven for forgetting about it, considering everything else that’s on offer…
We felt a little sorry for ploughing champions John Whelan and Eamonn Tracey (below). Reporters attempting to talk to the pair had to cut short their interviews several times — first when Michael D arrived at the media area, and again when word came down that the President would be having a quick chat with the press before his lunch, and not after.
[Daragh Brophy/TheJournal.ie]
For the record, hundreds of acres are being ploughed at the site this week. Over 300 competitors from all over the country are taking part, with a further 30 participants from ten countries competing in the European Vintage Ploughing Championships.
Considering that tens of thousands of people are being steered into a network of fields a few kilometres from Portlaoise, it’s perhaps hardly surprising that the traffic might be a little heavy.
That said, rumours abounded of secret cross-country routes to the car parks (unfortunately, no-one we ran into was willing to share their knowledge of these mystic byways).
21 people have died in farm accidents so far this year — so there was a major focus on the issue from farming associations and organisations exhibiting at the event.
The folks at Agri-Aware took an innovative approach — setting up a multi-media maze aimed at teaching kids how to spot the danger signs on farms, and stay out of trouble…
[Daragh Brophy/TheJournal.ie]
Motor safety was also being highlighted — the arresting sight below, outside the Kildare Road Safety stand, halted many in their tracks on their way around the exhibits…
It’s no mock-up, one of the volunteers with the group explained… The car was taken from the scene of a real-life crash.
[Daragh Brophy/TheJournal.ie]
A large-scale sheep-shearing event just before the European and local elections back in May was, by all accounts, absolutely mobbed by candidates making one last push for votes.
We’re not expecting a General Election for at least a year — but that doesn’t mean you should expect politicians to stay away.
Enda and Joan will be making (separate) visits to Ratheniska before closing time on Thursday — while Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan, who’s also a local TD, skipped this morning’s Cabinet meeting to put in an appearance.
Plenty of stalls had goodie-bags to give away — but neither of the Civil War parties were going quite that far… However, there were pens and postcards on offer from Fianna Fáil — and there was a steady stream of people signing-up for a charity raffle as TheJournal.ie paid a visit.
[Daragh Brophy/TheJournal.ie]
“We’ve even had people say to us that they’d prefer the tour of Leinster House to the All-Ireland tickets,” one party official told us (with an entirely straight face – kudos).
It was cups of tea only on offer over at the Fine Gael tent.
They gave out pens, keyrings and other nick-nacks in previous years, one volunteer said — but they decided not to bother anymore, as people would simply take the freebies without sticking around to talk.
There were gardaí on the beat, there were gardaí on traffic duty … and there was a raft of gardaí manning the force’s stand at the event, where senior officers were out pressing the flesh and promoting their ‘Community Safety Week’ initiative.
Noirín O’Sullivan wouldn’t be drawn on whether she intends to apply to become Commissioner on a permanent basis — all she said on the matter today was that she thought it would be “very unfair” for her to comment on the recruitment process.
That said, she had plenty of well-wishers…
[Daragh Brophy/TheJournal.ie]
In case you missed it, we paid a breakfast-time visit to Rentokil’s ‘Pestaurant’ earlier to sample some dried crickets and locusts.
Watch…
The lads at the stand gave us some ‘Mexican Spice’ Larvets to bring back to the press room — but they’ve been sitting on the desk ever since.
There’s something about the word ‘Larvets’ that’s just so off-putting.
These tiny worms need some better marketing.
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Increases in VAT..enforcing payment of wages during sick leave..banks freezing credit that are controlled by the government..increases in Prsi…any wonder there’s no confidence in the Kenny Circus.
Can’t believe you’re suggesting workers shouldn’t be paid for sick leave. It’s incredibly hypocritical to complain about the governmemt making it harder for you to get by when you’re complaining about something so basic that helps other people get by.
No problem with the State paying sick leave Evin but when you are trying to keep your chin above water during this economic sh*t storm, it’s ludicrous to expect a small business to pay someones wages when it can just about cover its weekly wage bill at best.
If you yourself are a business owner and you fall sick, do you dock your own pay for the amount of time you are sick?
It’s not just SMEs Bell-Enda
Would it not be easier to report on those who are satisfied with the governments performance? That would be the Troika and who else?
There would be a bit of a problem there Kerry. Not enough of us speak German .
Do like the French do when they not happy, shut all ports in protest!!! everything must come to a complete stop!
we need the unions to support that . and. that won’t. happen
SME pay the unions fee to represent them. Time for the dog to start waging its tail, instead of the other way round.
The model of banking just isn’t working. The EU is making it worse. All the banks are foreign owned. The names are misleading and calling them pillar and state adds to confusion. I do have a question if Wilber Ross owns 9% of BOI, and BOI got 45 billion bail out, did FG/Lab effectively give an American billionaire 4 billion?
enda and co. never had to run a small business . thy don’t understand what its like to try and keep up wit there every increasing
taxes . rates water charges. and all the stealth taxes that. thy keep pulling out of. there Ass. . . yet we are ment to pay. all this while our turnover gets smaller . week on. week . . FACT. MOST SMALL SHOPS HAVE A TURN OVER LESS THAN ENDA AND GILMORES WAGES PER WEEK . AVERAGE CORNER SHOP HAS A TURN OVER OF. LESS THAN 5K now pay. all expenses from that
total left for shop keeper after expenses . jack SHITE .
Everyone says they’re broke. How much is jack shite?
Why would you expect thanks just a load of parasites living off your work. Time to stop being made a mug of join the Labour Party screw your neighbour and never do a days work again. Simples
Evin a lot less THAN your dole. and before you reply . do you own a shop . are you self employed . if. the answer is no then. don’t. comment we the shop keeper and self employed are the back bone of. this country . . we create the jobs we collect vat on. behalf of. the government . and get no thanks for it . except penalized for been late wit payment . . every month the miracle of. the 5 loafs and 5 fish takes place in every small business across Ireland.
John, lets not get all exclusive here in the pain party. Without the consumer, you dont have a business. Therefore you dont “create” jobs. What’s good for the consumer, i.e everyone in the state, is ultimately good for you. There’s other’s beyond the self employed that need a break too.
I’m not self employed and I’m not on the dole. I work and pay taxes and spend my money which helps create jobs. I don’t see why you’re the backbone. I’d say everyone that works and spends money in this country is the backbone.
I happilly pay any taxes I owe because I know people who don’t have money need me to. We pay some of the lowest taxes out of any developed country in the world and yet we still complain.
Maybe the problem isn’t with the government or with taxes. Maybe the problem is with how your business is operating, whether you’re catering to your customers needs, and whether you’re reinventing yourself enough to still be relevant to the current market.
You got no thanks and there is none coming your way either!!
have your say