This afternoon.

Ballintrane, County Carlow.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin speaking to the media on Day 3 of the National Ploughing Championships.

Leah Farrell/Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Hello you.

Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed in the Aldi tent.

Leah Farrell/Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Plough on…….. @LeoVaradkar tries his hand at ploughing with Sligo man Coleman Cogen and his horses Ned and Ted at the National #ploughing Championships in Carlow. #ploughing19 @pa pic.twitter.com/Yx21UAqWTd

— Niall Carson (@niallcarsonpa) September 19, 2019

Good lines times.

This afternoon.

Ballintrane, Fenagh, County Carlow

Agricultural ‘reveller’s – including Rugby’s Paul O’Connell( above right), An Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade Simon Coveney TD (Pic 6) and Virgin Media sleb Karen Koster (pic 9) attend the second day of the National Ploughing Championships.

Leah Farrell/Rollingnews

Earlier: Plough It Into You

Live from the Ploughing Championship today on RTÉ radio and telly

Of RTÉ’s wall to wall ploughing coverage…

Aidan writes:

I know the National Ploughing Championship is a big deal but this is not the Second Coming for pity’s sake…

Every show. Every fupping show?

Can anyone recall ten years ago if the national broadcaster even bothered to send a second camera unit to the championships?

This is shameless bogger exploitation by a station fighting for its life.

*furrows brow*

FIGHT/Anyone?

Pics: RTÉ

From left: Aine Lawlor, Marty Morrissey, Joe Duffy and Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh

The 86th National Ploughing Championships will take place from  September 19-21 at Screggan, Tullamore.

Do you enjoy ploughing?

Do you like it as much as RTÉ?

Via RTÉ:

Both Tracy Clifford on RTÉ 2FM and The Ray D’Arcy Show on RTÉ Radio 1 will broadcast from ‘Ploughing’ for the first time, on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

Aine Lawlor and Marty Morrissey will return to present The Ploughing Live every evening on RTÉ One from 7.00-7.30pm;

Drivetime on RTÉ Radio 1 will feature live reports daily, while RTÉ One’s, Six One News will also include live reports from Ploughing 2017;

RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland and Today with Sean O’Rourke will be live from Screggan on Tuesday morning;

Marty in the Morning on RTÉ lyric fm will get things off to a positive start from 10am – 12noon on Wednesday, with The Connor Mc Keon Band and Neven Maguire among Marty’s guests. Marty will be followed by Countrywide live, presented by Damien O’Reilly

The Sunday Game’s live interactive panel event is back by popular demand at 4.45pm on Wednesday;

RTÉ lyric fm Quartet will ease people into the day with a live performance from 9.00 – 11.00am on Thursday;

Joe Duffy will ensure laughs-a-plenty with Liveline ‘Funny Thursday’ from 1.45 – 3pm;

While the Irish language will be well represented with Rónán agus Bláthnaid Beo ar RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta from 4 – 5pm on Thursday.

*kicks telly*

Ploughing Championship 2017 (RTÉ)

Update:

Via RTÉ

Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy is to face off against rugby international Sean O’Brien as the chatshow holds its first ever Plough Off live on Friday night.

Ryan is no stranger to ploughing, of course, having first turned his hand to churning the sod at last year’s National Ploughing Championships.

Christ on a bike.

Scenes by Random Irish Photos from yesterday (day two) and today, the final day of the National Ploughing Championship in Stradbally, Co Laois attended by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney [pics 5 and 6] yesterday and Enda Kenny [pics 2, 15 and 16] today.

‘Random’ writes:

“So this year’s National Ploughing Championships? Record crowds, the weather was great (except for the drizzle this morning), getting there was a bit of nightmare but getting out was a pretty slick affair (thanks to the Gardai Traffic Corps) and – by the eavesdropped sounds of things – there weren’t that many ‘freebies’ as last year. If you had stood by any junction in the vast site long enough, you would have heard someone ask: ‘Did you get any freebies?’ (And the answer would invariably be ‘no’).
What else? People moaned a lot, laughed a lot, learned something new about something, bumped into folk they hadn’t seen in ‘aaaaaaaages’ and a shed load of burgers (Pure Irish beef, mind) was sold – even at breakfast. Oh, yes – and horse and tractor ploughers (male AND female) competed against each other (the guy who always wins won this year, by the way) and Simon Coveney got heckled (briefly). He was rushed by his aides through the crowds so fast that all most had time to ask in his wake was (as the dust settled) ‘Who WAS that?’. His earnest little group – who seemed ill at ease with both press and public attention – dashed from stall to stall and barely had time to chat with the small coterie of star-struck admiring females keen to press the flesh with their Agriculture Minister before he was ushered to the next hand shake, or supermarket tent (he notably made a bee-line for Tesco and Supervalu, apparently). And then he was gone. Today the taoiseach arrived and Enda wooed the crowd – as only Enda does (i.e. a whole lot better than his agriculture minister) and,despite rumblings among various groups of farmers who vowed to give the Taoiseach a piece of their mind (or an auld egg or two), most people who came in contact with him seemed genuinely pleased to see him. And then he was gone (after lunch), in a very presidential-style – and quite bizarre – cavalcade, which some found odd given that he’d arrived at the event in a . . .jeep.”

Random Irish Photos

A map by the irish Farmers Journal detailing the venues for the National Ploughing Championship since its inception in Athy in 1933.

This year’s championship takes place in Stradbally, Laois and begins tomorrow.

Ploughing is an 83 year old moving event (Michael Maroney, Irish Farmers Journal)

Thanks Maura Fay