{"id":626318,"date":"2026-09-16T10:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626318\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T10:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:14:13","slug":"robodogs-fashion-and-welly-throwing-the-national-ploughing-championships-kicks-off-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626318\/","title":{"rendered":"Robodogs, fashion and welly-throwing: The National Ploughing Championships kicks off \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the far end of a previously unassuming field, a triumphant cap to a truly historic run for Irish sport was achieved by one proud Castlerea<\/a> man.<\/p>\n

Sure, Pico Lopes marked Lionel Messi in a World Cup knockout match, 15 men from Mayo ended their county\u2019s 75-year long All-Ireland curse and Kate O\u2019Connor ran, threw and jumped her way to European gold.<\/p>\n

But Shane Donlon, a father from Castlerea, Co Roscommon<\/a>, chucked a welly so high and so far, he left the 2026 National Ploughing Championships<\/a> in Screggan, Co Offaly<\/a>, with one free T-shirt and bragging rights to last a lifetime. That, surely, earns him his place among the sporting greats on this island.<\/p>\n

\"EoghanEoghan and Shane Donlon, a father and son from Castlerea in Co Roscommon, show off their winnings from the welly throwing competition. Photo: Stephen Conneely <\/p>\n

\u201cI threw it the first time and I could feel a little tweak in the hamstring, so I said: \u2018I\u2019m not going to be ripping that with this craic\u2019,\u201d he told The Irish Times after achieving glory. He knew to recalculate: \u201cthe second one, I just took it easy and the third one, I said I\u2019ll go for the sign\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

And went for the sign he did \u2013 and, with it, the welly won him some new clobber. \u201cI gave it welly at the Ploughing,\u201d the logo on its front reads. His son, Eoghan, was there to see his old man\u2019s crowning moment.<\/p>\n

The Donlons said they wanted to make the most of their day at the Ploughing. \u201cThere\u2019s so much to do here,\u201d the father said, \u201cYou\u2019d nearly want the two days if you wanted to see everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mikey Cully (7) and his sister Lillian (8) were also fierce competitors in the welly throw. When Mikey made his way to the line, his underarm technique was slightly overextended \u2013 and the adult-sized boot made its way directly (and rather quickly, as well) to his sister\u2019s stomach.<\/p>\n

Lillian was not totally convinced he did it by accident – \u201che would do that on purpose at home\u201d, but she quickly laughed it off and the two were back to being friends before they could say \u201cwellington boot\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"SandraSandra and Laura Kelly, a mother and daughter from Co Offaly, after leaving the fashion show. Photo: Stephen Conneely\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Among the over 1,700 stands across the 700-acre site, where 250,000 people are expected to visit this week, a small tent was causing big waves in the Irish fashion industry.<\/p>\n

The queue to get in was out the door, maybe in part due to the male attendees\u2019 reluctance to actually sit down. But walking up and down an elevated runway were models donning outfits from popular Irish designers. <\/p>\n

\"MikeyMikey Cully (7) while competing in the welly throwing competition. Photo: Stephen Conneely\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of local boutiques, which is nice to see because it\u2019s the last year it\u2019s going to be here, so I was kind of surprised at that. It\u2019s nice to see that at the Ploughing,\u201d said Laura Kelly, who made it to the Screggan field before 2pm having just finished working at a nearby school. <\/p>\n

With her mother, Sandra, she came to the Ploughing as her brother is performing at several of the music tents as a member of the popular folk-traditional fusion band, Ruaile Buaile. <\/p>\n

\"CrowdsCrowds at the first day of the National Ploughing Championships in Co Offaly. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

On the fashion sense of the 80,000 or so people who joined her at the agri-convention: \u201cJerseys and wellies, I think, are the way to go here. But there are some people with a nice country chic\u201d style, she said. <\/p>\n

On the other side of the site \u2013 only a few hundred metres away, but with a strict grid in place to shepherd the thousands around it all, it takes about 20 minutes to get there \u2013 some have swapped country chic with artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n

Fido, a robot dog, has been catching a lot of attention at the National Ploughing Championships. Video: Stephen Conneely <\/p>\n

At the Engineers Ireland stand, two robots (one humanoid, one dog-like) command the attention of their audiences with their every automated move. <\/p>\n

\u201cFarming has always been very good at taking up technology, it\u2019s just slow to take up new technology,\u201d Keelan Keoghan, the organisation\u2019s policy officer who programmed the robo-dog, said. <\/p>\n

\u201cEventually, robotics and drones will be used in farming, it\u2019s just a matter of time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the far end of a previously unassuming field, a triumphant cap to a truly historic run for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[218,12613,61,60,43,8286,21727],"class_list":["post-626318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-electric-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-offaly","tag-roscommon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626318","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=626318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}