As the final flow of traffic from the car parks leave this evening, the total attendance figures for the 2014 Championship came to a record breaking 279,500. This marks the most successful National Ploughing Championships in history, smashing last year’s figures by 51,500. Speaking at the close of business, Ms Anna Marie McHugh said “We are delighted with the overall attendance figure this year. The three days ran very smoothly and the feedback from early on, via social media, has been extremely positive. Both on Twitter and Facebook, #Ploughing has been trending all week and thousands have been updating their status or uploading pictures”.
“ Traffic to and from the site has been moving well all week and credit is due to An Garda Síochána in no small part and the traffic management plan in place. With the record numbers attending, everyone expected to meet some holdups, but the traffic was kept flowing at all times with only the very minimum of delays”.
Attending today, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD, took time to meet and discuss the ploughing conditions with World Champion, Eamonn Tracey of Carlow who again won the National Ploughing Conventional Competition, before hitting the track-way and exhibits for the afternoon. Congratulating the NPA on another successful year, he paid tribute to Ms Anna May McHugh, staff and the several hundred volunteers needed to host the event. He also congratulated the winner of the National Ploughing Reversible Competition John Whelan.
The hotly contested National Brown Bread Baking final took place in the Aldi tent in front of an audience of several hundred. Overall winner in first place was Ms Betty Williams from Clonmel, South Tipperary.