Wiktoria Licheska, Eoin Lally, Ally McLoughlin, Suzanne Jordan and Cian Egan from ForÃ³ige with NPA Managing Director Anna May McHugh at the launch of the 2018 National Ploughing Championships at Screggan, Tullamore. Picture: Jeff Harvey at the launch of the 2018 National Ploughing Championships at S

Ploughing will return to Screggan

Published: Fri 28 Sep 2018, 11:00 AM

The Ploughing will return to Screggan, Anna Marie McHugh from the National Ploughing Assocaition (NPA) said this week.

Storm Ali's winds may have forced the NPA to cancel the second day of this year's event and to extend it into a fourth day, but it hasn't coloured the organisers' fondness for the site at Screggan, where it had been held since 2016.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent this week, Ms McHugh, the NPA's Assistant Managing Director, said that the event, which is the largest of its kind in Europe, will return to Screggan “at some point in the future”.

She also paid tribute to local people who have played a part in the event's success over the past three years.

“It's been absolutely tremendous (the site at Screggan). The Tullamore site has worked really well but it didn't work by accident. The Gardai put a huge effort into the traffic plan and all of the services in Offaly have been massively supportive – the council, the road teams, the fire service, the HSE, they have all been a pleasure to work with.”