Irish Country Living at the Ploughing brings you the Country Lounge where you can meet members of the team including gardening expert Lily Champ, columnist Katherine O’Leary, beauty expert Dolly Buckley, milliner Karen Elliffe and many more!

You can pick up a copy of the latest issue of Irish Country Magazine featuring Darina Allen and secure your ticket for this year’s Women & Agriculture Conference in Sligo.

Every day of the ploughing at 11.30am please join us for a reader feedback forum. We really want to hear your thoughts.

Come meet the team in the Lounge so that we can learn from you what you want to read about in Irish Country Living every week.

Tuesday – 2.30pm

Robert Miller is a plant specialist and owner of Altamont Plant Sales which is attached to Altamont Gardens in Co Carlow.

On Tuesday he will be at the Irish Farmers Journal stand in our lounge talking about how gardeners can plant for bio-diversity and what you should be growing to keep your garden looking well at this time of year. And if you want to know more about snowdrops, he’s your man.

Wednesday – all day

Beef farmer and milliner Karen Elliffe will be talking about how she got into millinery. She will showcase her latest range of hats and give some tips and tricks on how to make your own. If you are interested in the area, come and talk to Karen.

Is it inevitable that villages across rural Ireland will continue to lose their shops, pubs and services or can the tide be turned?

Come say hello to the team at Ploughing 2019 - we really appreciate hearing all reader feedback. \ Donal O'Leary

Well one village in Co Tipperary appears to have found a way and is winning the war against rural decay. If you want to hear more, come meet Mary Fogarty from The Cottage in Loughmore to hear how community-owned co-operatives could be the way of the future. She will be joining us in the Lounge at the stand on Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday – 2.30pm

Our resident make up and beauty supremo Dolly Buckley will join us in the Lounge on Thursday afternoon to talk about her most tried and tested favourite makeup/beauty products as well as the tricks of the trade that she has used over her 30 year career as a make-up artist.

Tuesday and Wednesday – 4pm

On both Tuesday and Wednesday finalists will battle it out to be our Ploughing for Stars singing champion. Each day a winner will be chosen by our panel of judges which includes Ollie Hennessey, musical director of the Rose of Tralee.

Country Music aficionado Michael Commins and Anne O’Donoghue will welcome finalists on stage for a celebration of music and song!