The Leitrim Ploughing Championships will take place in Carrigallen later, following the postponement of the event on Easter Saturday because of poor weather conditions.<\/p>\n
Winners from the regional competition will qualify for the 95th National Ploughing Championships, scheduled to take place in Screggan, Co Offaly, in September.<\/p>\n
Loy digging, a traditional hand-ploughing method using a long, narrow-bladed spade to till soil is a feature of the Leitrim competition.<\/p>\n
Although its use in farming has been superseded for many generations, the traditional practice made a revival in recent years as a heritage sport at ploughing competitions.<\/p>\n
It is believed that most land was tilled by hand using a Loy or a similar tool until the end of the 19th century. Competitors must dig two ridges within an allocated time.<\/p>\n
Secretary of the Leitrim Ploughing Association Tommy Masterson told RT\u00c9 News that Loy digging has made a revival in the last 20 years in several counties.<\/p>\n
The event will also feature various classes of ploughing, including senior, junior, classic, a Macra class, a horse class and three vintage classes.<\/p>\n
Mr Masterson who has been involved in the Leitrim Ploughing Association for 25 years said preparations were extensive, beginning before Christmas.<\/p>\n
He said around 20 committee members are involved in the organisation of the competitions, organising a suitable field, logistics, competitions and marketing.<\/p>\n
The competition is rooted in the community, with many involved having family connections to the farming practices. Ms Masterson’s interest began in her youth.<\/p>\n
“My father ploughed with horses years ago. I liked the smell of the earth and that stuck with me. I ploughed for 25 years with a tractor and a two-furrow match plough,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Leitrim Championships will begin in Carrigallen at noon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Leitrim Ploughing Championships will take place in Carrigallen later, following the postponement of the event on Easter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-428748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}