A local ploughman says he can’t see the exhibitor side of the National Ploughing Championships going ahead at all this year.
The NPA will be meeting to discuss whether any part of the event, including the competitions, can still take place.
Last year almost 300,000 people attended over the course of the three days in September.
Vice Chairman of North Tipperary Ploughing Association, Éamonn Murphy has told Tipp FM News, social distancing rules won’t allow for crowds like that:
“There’s an executive meeting being held in the very near future and that will make the final decision.
“It looks now, at the present time, like the ploughing competitions may go ahead themselves – behind closed doors and under controlled social distancing rules.
“But I can’t see the exhibitions part of it going ahead at all this year.
“The World Ploughing is part of the competition this year and the decision will have to made as to whether those competitors from other countries will come or not.”
As a ploughman himself, Éamonn says he would still like to see the competitions side of the event going ahead anyway.
However, he thinks every ploughing association around the country would end up having to nominated their competitors this year, rather than holding competitions for them to be selected.
North Tipperary’s ploughing event, where the competitors for the nationals would have been chosen, was called off as a result of the pandemic.
