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HISTORY
THE NPA & CHAMPIONSHIPS
1931 – 2012
FORMATION & ORIGINS OF THE NATIONAL PLOUGHING ASSOCIATION
1931 – 2012
We can only guess at the number of centuries during
which local ploughing competitions have been taking
place, but records tell us of a match in Camolin Park,
Wexford on 20th October, 1816.
On that occasion, a special prize of £5 was put up
for the carpenter or ploughmaker who produced the
best and cheapest plough made by himself and who
contracted to supply the public with similar ploughs
at the same price.
Between 1816 and 1930, ploughing competitions
thrived between neighbouring parishes, the
competition was good and people were enthusiastic
but there was no goal to strive for.
In 1931 the Republic of Ireland had suffered the
impact of the War of
Independence and the dreadful
wounds of its own Civil War still
festered. It was passing through a
bruising economic depression, but
the Irish way of life went on much
as usual. What better antidote
to widespread national anxiety
than vigorous debate about the
comparative skills of the men who Anna May McHugh, secretary of
tilled the land? the N.P.A., enjoying the company
of Murty McGrath at the 1957
Ploughing at Boyle.
Minister for Agriculture, Paddy
Hogan, had pinpointed the challenge of the day with
the clarion cry “one more sow, one more cow, and
one more acre under the plough”. His challenge
seemed to have been ignored. The wheat acreage for
1930 had declined to one of the lowest points at just
over 20,000 statute acres, since records were kept.
Two men who lived very close to the hard core of Irish
politics, the late J.J. Bergin, from Athy, a progressive covering standards and regulations at parish, county
farmer and Civil Engineer, and farmer Denis Allen of
Gorey, sought the relief of just such a safety valve.
They debated which county had the best ploughmen,
Kildare or Wexford. Interest was generated at once.
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Local ploughing matches and challenges were
common and had probably existed in one form or
another since the first horse, plough, or race in Ireland
but the idea of an Inter County Ploughing Contest
had never arisen.
The debate resulted in the inevitable challenge. The
pick of the ploughmen in Kildare would meet the pick
of the ploughmen in Wexford in a field combat. The
competition would take place at a time when it was
widely believed that the plough was Ireland’s only
redemption. The excitement of the prospect made the
two men contact tillage farmers in other counties,
and on the 16th February, 1931 nine counties met in
competition on the “plains of Kildare”, Coursetown,
Athy – the same venue of the 2011 National
Ploughing Championships.
And so it was, the National
Ploughing Association was born. The
cost of running this first event was
£9.3.5. The competing counties formed
a committee, drawing up rules and
conditions with the main objective “to
bring the message of good ploughing
to all parts of the country and to
provide farmers with a pleasant,
friendly and appropriate place to meet
and do business.”
It may interest you to know that Wexford won that
first challenge, but if Denis Allen triumphed over his
old friend it did not last long, for it was lost in the
size of the enterprise they immediately put in train.
With J.J. Bergin now firmly at the helm, the two men
were set on an irreversible course forward.
The competing counties formed a committee. Rules
and national level were agreed. The NPA was the
first in the world to organise ploughing matches on a
national level.