Up to 300,000 visitors are expected to pack the field in Ratheniska next week for the return of the National Ploughing Championships.

That’s a long way from the 3,000 people who attended the second championships in Gorey in 1932 or the inaugural event a year earlier.

The first championship had taken place in 1931 when a planned ploughing contest between farmers from Kildare and Wexford grew legs and morphed into a competition involving nine counties.

The contest took place in WK Hosie’s field at Coursetown in Athy on 16 February 1931. The same venue was to be used for the championships eight decades later in 2011.

The friendly rivalry between Kildare and Wexford had at its core the friendship between JJ Bergin and Denis Allen. Both were farmers, the former hailed from Athy and the latter from Gorey.

Although the ploughmen of Wexford won the inaugural championships, the real winners of the contest were the country’s farmers as the event led to the establishment of the National Ploughing Association (NPA).

The newly formed ploughing body – which was among the first national organisations of its kind in the world – was headed up by Bergin and a committee drawn from the various competing counties.

Competition rules and finances took up much of the early committee’s exchanges.

Rules covering ploughing standards and regulations at parish, county and national level had to be agreed. And this was not a simple matter.

After the first championships, there was much debate about the type of ploughing which should be deemed standard or best.

Eventually, however, a so-called “national style” was adopted. This style, when properly executed, gave a nicely skimmed sod, turned well over, with a round back and a firm bed.

Under the agreed rules, just three poles were allowed at the making of the middle, and the time limit for ploughing a rood (plot) was five hours.

Financing the event was also crucially important. The cost of running the Athy competition was £9, 3 shillings and 5p, excluding prize money. Sponsors for the various classes had to be identified, as well as funding gathered for general expenses.

The prizes on offer in 1931 were extremely attractive. The victorious Wexford team of three shared a cash prize of £12 and won the David Frame Perpetual Challenge Cup.

A £5 cash prize was on offer for the individual ploughing championship, while a £9 first prize was up for grabs in the tractor ploughing class. This comprised a barrel of oil to the value of £7 for the owner of the tractor and £2 for the driver.

However, the NPA did not confine itself to simply running ploughing matches. While the association outlined that its primary goal was “to bring the message of good ploughing to all parts of the country”, crucially it recognised that the organisation had a role in providing farmers “with a pleasant, friendly and appropriate place to meet and do business”.

The success of the NPA and the National Ploughing Championships has been in marrying these twin objectives to provide a space for the farm sector – and, indeed, rural Ireland – to come together in all its commonality and diversity each year.

The championships inevitably morphed and changed to mirror developments in the agricultural industry.

Horses gave way to tractors during the 1950s, and the championships moved from a one-day to a two-day format.

As the 1960s dawned, the competition was shifted from its traditional January-February slot in the calendar to becoming a post-harvest autumn event.

Meanwhile, the growth in the wider rural “Ploughing” audience in the 1980s saw the competition take on its current three-day format.

Like many other national festivals, the Ploughing as an event has long since outgrown the Ploughing as a competition.

However, as with its musical cousin Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, it remains a crucial gathering for rural Ireland and for the farming community.

A place and a time in the year where the farming community and rural Ireland takes stock.

It is a fitting legacy to the friendship of Bergin and Allen.

A ploughing timeline

1931 – Athy - first intercounty contest takes place in Athy, Co Kildare.

1932 – Gorey – the Wexford town is the venue for the event.

1933 – Dublin – the capital takes the honour, with the Ploughing being held in Clondalkin.

1934 – Athenry – Galway hosts the contest, with the number of participating counties increasing from nine to 17.

1939 – Killarney – The Kingdom is the venue for the championships which take place in February, six months before war erupts in Europe.

1942 – Dublin - Cloghran in Dublin is the venue as the championships continues despite the hostilities that have spread across the globe.

1949 – Drogheda – Drogheda plays host to the event in the year that Anna May McHugh joined the NPA.

1955 – Athy - the championships return to Athy and become a two-day event as Anna May HcHugh is appointed NPA secretary.

1958 – Tramore - the Ploughing moves to Waterford in the year that NPA founder JJ Bergin dies.

1960 – New Ross – The Model County again plays host as the championships move from being held in January-February to taking place in the autumn.

1964 – Kilkenny - Charlie Keegan of Wicklow wins Ireland’s first world ploughing title in the year that the championships are hosted by Kilkenny.

1965 – Enniskerry - the championships are postponed for a week due to poor weather as the Ploughing returns to the Garden County.

1973 – Wexford – Anna May McHugh takes over as managing director of the NPA as the ploughing heads back to the southeast.

1980 – Rockwell College – the championships continue to expand even through the severe farming downturn of the early 1980s.

1988 – Oak Park – the Carlow research centre hosts the event for the first of three years. The Ploughing also becomes a three-day event for the first time and attracts a wider farming and rural audience.

1994 – Enniscorthy – Wexford’s Martin Kehoe wins another world ploughing title for Ireland in New Zealand.

1995 – Ballacolla – reversible ploughing class introduced as the event is by now a settled for the third week in September.

2001 – Cancelled – an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease means the event, which was scheduled for Ballacolla, was called off.

2006 – Tullow – the national championships overlap with the world championships.

2009 – Athy – event heads home to Athy for a three-year stint.

2012 – New Ross – event goes ahead despite severe traffic congestion.

2016 – Tullamore – the site at Screggan hosts the championships for three years.

2019 – Fenagh – the picturesque village was the last venue to host the Ploughing.

2020 – cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021 – Ratheniska – attendance restricted to competitors due to COVID-19.

2022 – the Ploughing returns to Ratheniska where it was held successfully from 2013 to 2015.