{"id":72296,"date":"2025-09-18T22:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/72296\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T22:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:51:11","slug":"best-brown-bread-winner-crowned-on-final-day-of-ploughing-championships-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/72296\/","title":{"rendered":"Best brown bread winner crowned on final day of ploughing championships \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are few prizes as coveted at the National Ploughing Championships<\/a> than the winner of the best brown bread. <\/p>\n

The prize reflects the prestige of the competition \u2013 \u20ac5,000 and a Neff \u2018slide and hide\u2019 oven worth \u20ac2,000 \u2013 much sought after as the oven of choice in the Great British Bake-Off competition. <\/p>\n

For some past winners the impact has been life-changing as they have been able to secure contracts for their recipe with major supermarket chains. <\/p>\n

The competition is organised by the Irish Countrywomen\u2019s Association (ICA). From 400 entrants across Ireland and an elimination process at county and national level, eight bakers made it to the semi-final and four to the final, all first-time entrants. <\/p>\n

Maureen Igoe from Bonniconlon, Co Mayo; Kathy Bolger from Wexford; \u00c1ine Cotter, a maths teacher and mother of four from Dunmanway, Co Cork; and Pauline Browne, a marketeer and businesswoman from West Cork Silver baked off for the big prize. <\/p>\n

It was standing room only in the ICA tent for the final announcement, made, as it is every year, by the matriarch of the National Ploughing Championships, Anna May McHugh. <\/p>\n

Ms Igoe was declared the winner. The widowed mother of eight and grandmother of 25 made hers with Guinness \u2013 \u201cthe real stuff, not the Zero Zero\u201d \u2013 and treacle, but without milk. <\/p>\n

She has been making it for years and her children and grandchildren love it. \u201cI\u2019m on cloud nine. I\u2019ll burst into tears when everybody is gone. It\u2019s not going to change my life. If I was 40, perhaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is going to take a holiday with \u201cmore luxury than we normally have\u201d and she had a big birthday recently. \u201cI\u2019m not going to tell you what it is.\u201d <\/p>\n

No National Ploughing Championships would be complete without the All-Ireland welly-throwing competition, similar to the shot putt with a cage and running commentary. <\/p>\n

\"WellieWellie throwing at the National Ploughing Championships is a very popular pursuit <\/p>\n

The event raises money for Sosad Ireland, which provides low-cost online counselling from six offices. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are 100 per cent reliant on community donations,\u201d said Shirley McKay. \u201cEvents like today are absolutely integral to our fundraising. Last year we raised \u20ac8,000 for our services.\u201d <\/p>\n

An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a> has used the National Ploughing Championships in Tullamore for a full-scale recruitment campaign. On Tuesday Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> and Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly<\/a> launched this year\u2019s drive, which ends on Thursday, October 9th. <\/p>\n

There was a time when the force did not need to actively recruit members when there were fewer opportunities and fewer still of a permanent job and pension with An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na. <\/p>\n

In a time of full employment and endless opportunities, the force has upped its game by bringing in a number of high-profile sports stars. <\/p>\n

They included Tipperary All-Ireland winning captain Ronan Maher; two-times Meath All-Ireland winner Meghan Thynne; Donegal goalkeeper Shaun Patton, who played League of Ireland before taking up Gaelic football; and former Ireland rugby player Fiona Reidy, all members of the force. <\/p>\n

\"TipperaryTipperary All-Ireland winning captain Ronan Maher at the Garda recruitment stand during the National Ploughing Championships in Creggan <\/p>\n

Maher (29) combines being a garda in Portlaoise with the responsibilities of being Tipperary captain before and after this year\u2019s improbable All-Ireland win. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be really disciplined and organised and planning in advance. Without the support of my colleagues in Portlaoise Garda station that wouldn\u2019t be possible,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

He recommends the force to young people who are playing high-level sport too. \u201cHave a good strong think about it.\u201d <\/p>\n

A total of 62,000 visitors attended day three of the ploughing, making for a total of 225,000 over the three days. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are few prizes as coveted at the National Ploughing Championships than the winner of the best brown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[39988,18,117,19,17,3171],"class_list":{"0":"post-72296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-national-ploughing-championships","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-offaly"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}