Irish Farmers Journal online journalist Amy Fitzgibbon collected impressions from some of the hundreds of thousands of visitors to this week's National Ploughing Championships.
President Michael D Higgins had strong words to highlight the role of farming at the heart of Irish society when he opened the event.
Yet rural communities have been plagued by rising crime and Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan visited the Ploughing to explain what the Gardaí are doing to address this issue. News journalist Odile Evans recorded the testimony of John Duggan, a Co Waterford farmer who suffered three successive burglaries.
One of the many events hosted on the Irish Farmers Journal’s stand at the Ploughing was the FBD National Farmyard Awards. Irish Country Living’s consumer editor Ciara Leahy spoke to national winner Sean Treacey just after the ceremony.
Finally, Amy Fitzgibbon illustrates the wind of innovation and entrepreneurship felt at this year's Ploughing with a visit to the stand of Co Longford-based Lir Agri laboratory at the Local Enterprise Village.