Pioneer of women’s farming won national Ladies’ ploughing twice
ONE of the greatest figures in the history of ploughing, and indeed agriculture, nationally is remembered on her death this week for the pioneering furrow she drove through the heart of a male dominated world in the 1950s.
Before Causeway native Annie Mae Donegan, it had been unthinkable for a woman to take the wheel of a tractor.
But in winning the national title of Queen of the Plough - in Athy in 1955 and in Nenagh in 1956 – she showed men that a woman could handle the tractor and equipment every bit as skilfully.
They loved her for it - in her native home and far beyond – as she brought All-Ireland glory home to the Kingdom and consolidated Causeway’s place on the ploughing map.
Ballyheigue’s Tom Lawlor was in Causeway on the night of her first homecoming, where the streets were thronged. “You couldn’t move there were so many people out to welcome her home with the crown. And to see the tears in people’s eyes as we finally saw her driving into Causeway on her small grey Ferguson, I’ll never forget it, it was an amazing night and an incredible achievement for her,” Tom recalled.
“The late Paddy Sean O’Connell who was the Chairman of the Causeway Ploughing Association at the time opened with the remarks ‘It’s the greatest crowd ever seen in Causeway since Neilus Flynn brought the County Championship Cup in 1932!’”
“People were crying and they all wanted to meet her and shake her hand, that’s how much she and the achievement meant to them. She was like a celebrity,” Tom said.
For latter-day All Ireland Ploughing Champion and close neighbour Martin Donegan she was nothing less than an inspiration. “We’re neighbours practically and we have the same surname, though we’re not related, but she was a massive inspiration to me. I was too young to have witnessed her in action but we grew up hearing stories about her as the Queen of the Plough, she was legendary really.
“You’d never have thought when you were younger hearing those stories that one day you would do it yourself too, winning a national title, but it was because of her inspiration,” Michael said.
From a farm in Tillaughna just north of the village, Annie Mae displayed farming aptitude from an early age, with her late brother Joe and the late Martin Slattery spotting that skill and nurturing her ploughing as her trainers.
The team work paid off in spades of course as Annie Mae made history in the National Ploughing Association annals, when she won the Farmerette category.
“Before her it was unthinkable that a woman would have taken to the wheel of a tractor,” Chairperson of the Kerry Ploughing Association and champion plougher Thomas Healy told The Kerryman.
“Ladies ploughing was unheard of - they would nearly laugh at you for suggesting such a thing! But Annie Mae was a pioneering figure in it. She was, by all accounts, a tremendous competitor who always went out to do her very best to win.
“I wish to dearly pass on the sympathies of all in the Kerry Ploughing Association to her daughter Ann Marie and son-in-law Pat and their family,” Thomas said.
Annie Mae Donegan became Annie Mae Gleasure on her marriage to Clogherbrien farmer Bob Gleasure – another pioneering figure in agirculture who introduced remarkably productive new practices at the family farm that would have been widely emulated by his peers. Annie Mae, is meanwhile survived by her sister Mary (Kelly), daughter Ann Marie, son-in-law Pat, grandchildren, relatives and friends.
PRO of the Kerry Ploughing Association Tom O’Mahony put her achievements in great context: “In 1955 Annie Mae Donegan won the Farmerette Class at the National Ploughing Championships in Athy and was conferred with the title Queen of the Plough.
“Annie Mae, along with her coach Martin Slattery, successfully defended her title again in 1956 in Nenagh which was a wonderful achievement for Kerry Ploughing as it was the first Queen of the Plough title for Kerry and the first All Ireland Ploughing title for Causeway.
“On the March 20, 2012, Annie Mae, along with her fellow Kerry competitors, who had won 38 individual All Ireland titles to date, were honoured with a Mayoral Civic Reception hosted by Kerry County Council in honour of their achievements.
May the sod rest lightly on Annie Mae and may she rest in peace.”