Europe's biggest farming festival is returning to Co Wexford after a four-year absence, and this time Enniscorthy is determined not to let the opportunity slip.
When the National Ploughing Championships last came to the town in 1994 local businesses anticipated a pre-Christmas bonanza; instead the traffic was so effectively channelled through the town to the ploughing site at the foot of nearby Vinegar Hill that the event all but passed them by.
This time things will be different when up to 150,000 visitors flock to the ploughing site at Ferns seven miles from Enniscorthy on the Dublin road for three days next week.
While Ferns (population: 1,000; pubs: seven) will be at the centre of the action, it cannot hope to cater for the biggest social event on the rural calendar.
So Enniscorthy is standing by to capitalise. "This time we're hoping to do much better," says the Chamber of Commerce president, Eugene Doyle. The last time there was "only one hotel. since then two new ones and a hostel have opened", and urban renewal schemes have given the place a major facelift.
At the ploughing site a 650-acre tillage, dairy and fruit farm has been transformed into a mini-metropolis. The erection of 750 trade stands as well as pubs, restaurants, offices, toilets and shopping arcades is well advanced on the farm run by Donal Murphy, his wife, Yvonne Jordan, and Donal's semi-retired parents, Aidan and Mary.
To put it mildly, Donal and Yvonne are a couple who like a challenge. Giving over 350 acres of their farm to the National Ploughing Association meant having to plan this year's crops with the NPA's requirements in mind. But that was the easy bit.
The family will also have their own bar and restaurant on the site, and Yvonne has taken on the role of joint accommodation officer, with Mrs Lil O'Connor, and takes calls daily from 8 a.m. until midnight from people looking for a bed within striking distance of Ferns.
"Accommodation queries started coming in a year ago and all the hotels are filled at this stage," says Yvonne. "Anyone with spare rooms locally is keeping people."
Nobody gets turned away. "It's up to us to find everyone accommodation. We're not like the tourist office who can say there's nothing available. It's up to us to find them something. We just go further out as necessary." Some people insist on hotel accommodation and last week rooms were being booked as far away as Fethard and Carlow.
Yvonne finds she is answering all sorts of queries: "You imagine you won't be involved, that they [the NPA] take over, but there are still a lot of inquiries to deal with and a lot of things to sort out. And if neighbours have a problem, like with the big machines coming on to the site, they come to you because they don't know where else to go," she says.
Donal put the farm forward for consideration last year, when it became known that a Wexford site was being sought for the 1798 bicentenary. There's financial compensation but "it wouldn't make you rich", he says.
The farm, about a mile west of the village, is ideally located because of the relatively easy access to the site. Other farmers in the area will provide 300 acres of carpark space.
The couple, who married last year, have hired professional caterers to run Murphy's Kitchen, their on-site restaurant, while a cousin of Donal's, Emer Murphy, will be in charge of the bar.
Other locals will also be cashing in. Tom Dunbar has 12 extra part-time staff to help in the pub he runs in the village and another he's setting up on site.
"A lot of people coming to the ploughing won't get into the village at all. Only the traffic from the direction of Dublin and maybe some from the midlands will be directed through Ferns, but with so many people around it has to have a beneficial effect," he says.
Paddy Doyle, owner of two premises in the village, The Thatch pub and Courtyard bar and restaurant, says local businesses have been reassured following a meeting with gardai. "A good balance has been struck between keeping the traffic flowing and enabling people to stop in Ferns if they want to."
The Courtyard will open at 6 a.m. for the three days of the event to serve breakfast to gardai and other early birds on duty.
Even if the people of Ferns are apprehensive about repeating the Enniscorthy experience, they should take heart that not everyone there was disappointed last time. Mary Bourke, owner of an Enniscorthy jeweller's shop and the Watch House art gallery, said Christmas 1994 was one of the best ever as a direct result of the ploughing.
"It brought a lot of money to the area. Local suppliers, whether it was of cylinders of gas being used on the site or whatever, were used as much as possible and a lot of people benefited even if it wasn't fully appreciated at the time."
The National Ploughing Championships will be officially opened at noon next Tuesday by the President, Mrs McAleese. The Taoiseach will also attend on opening day
