Louth hat-trick at National Ploughing
THE wee county celebrated a hat trick at the National Ploughing Championships recently, taking home three all Ireland titles.
In total, there were seven competitors from Louth battling it out for top prizes in Tullamore at the national ploughing championships.
On the first day of competition Louth men Pat, Eamon and Enda McKeown were ploughing in the conventional intermediate class.
Another local man, Lesley Walsh, was competing in the junior 3rd furrow class.
First up were the McKeown trio who each ploughed really well and placed respectively. For Lesley it was his first time competing at that level, and he did a great job and he managed to finish fourth, just two marks off third place.
On the second day Louth just had one competitor taking part, this being the well known local farmer Gerry King.
Gerry holds the record for the most amount of all Ireland titles.
As the competition got un- derway Gerry showed his skill, holding off the tough opposition of Cork on what was one of the wettest plough matches in history.
On the third and final day Gerry’s son Gerard was ploughing in the special horse class. Gerard, like his dad, has won multiple all Ireland titles.
Gerard was up against tough competition from around the country but excelled in the ploughing category, beating rivals Cork again by four marks.
Also competing on the final day was the Conor Mckeown. Conor is 17 and grandson of Pat.
Conor was ploughing in the intermediate novice class. He had a run of form coming into the all Ireland, having won two county matches the weekend before the championships. Conor put in a fantastic performance, ploughing well to hold off Kieran McConnon from Monaghan, and succeeding in winning his very first all Ireland title. This was an extra special win as it was 50 years on from Pat winning one of his many all Ireland prizes.