THE CONTENDERS had trousers held up with rope, straw sticking out of pockets and, to prove themselves true blue culchies, had to be sworn in on the Beano, pick spuds in a car park and beat rivals at welly throwing.
The annual Culchie Festival took place in Mohill, Co Leitrim, at the weekend and fittingly, the winner of King of the Culchies title for 2010 was a Leitrim man, 23-year-old Shane McKeown from Ballinaglera. A former young farmer of the year, Mr McKeown was delighted to have taken the title in Mohill where the festival was held in conjunction with the annual horse fair.
“It was mighty for me to finally bring the all-Ireland title to the lovely county,” said Mr McKeown who promised to do the culchie fraternity proud in the coming year.
One of the most bizarre events on the festival programme this year was the attempt to beat the world record for wearing the most underpants.
On the day the record was broken thanks to the well-padded posterior of i102 DJ Fergal Darcy, which sported no less than 241 pairs.
A sweating, exhausted Darcy managed to don the underwear in under an hour, beating the socks total as well as the underwear total of previous winner Lee Philips from Britain.
He had managed to put on a paltry 144 pairs of underpants within the allowed time.
Described as a Rose of Tralee for men, the festival attracted 19 contenders who, during the three-day event, had to impress judges with their skills, including fashion flair as well as “overall devotion to the culchie lifestyle”.
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