More than 50,000 people yesterday attended the first day of the National Ploughing Championships at Ballinabrackey, near Kinnegad, Co Meath, writes Seán MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent.
The event was officially opened by the President, Mrs McAleese, who confessed to being overwhelmed by the size and scope of the event.
She said the very best of everything to do with Irish farming, rural crafts to cutting edge new technology, Irish fashion, home-made farm produce and millions of pounds worth of machinery was on display.
"This is where the traditional relaxed Irish fair day, the Aonach, meets the most sophisticated modern business fair," she said.
"This is where more than 150,000 men, women and children will meet and mingle over the next three days. They will have looked forward to this event for months and they will take away from it everything from new friendships to new farm machinery," she said.
Later the President was mobbed by well-wishers as she walked through the site on which 650 trade stands have been erected for the event being held on a 500-acre site.
There was a slightly less warm reception for the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, when he found himself surrounded by argumentative farmers as he visited the Irish Farmers' Association stand.
The Minister found himself surrounded by a number of farmers who wanted to indulge in lively and heated debate over his criticism of farm leaders "badmouthing" the industry when he attended the ASA conference last week.
However, Mr Walsh held his ground and gave as good as he got, reminding the farmers that he had not made a personal attack on their leader, Mr Dillon.
Mr Dillon will be in action himself here later today when his organisation intends to "name and shame" a number of restaurants and meat distributors who have been selling imported beef as Irish.
The IFA has used a Dublin-based laboratory to look at the genetic make up of the beef to determine if it is Irish or from Latin America.
There was a major turn-out of all the political parties at the site here yesterday, with the Sinn Féin leader, Mr Gerry Adams, attracting a lot of attention.
Mr Adams, attending the event for the first time, was greeted by well-wishers, the curious and the celebrity viewers. He stayed at the championships with his colleague, Mr Martin Ferris TD, until after the official opening.
The Green Party launched its agriculture and food policy yesterday which called for a better deal for farmers by increasing their share of the final product price.
In the 1950s, it said, farmers could expect to receive half of the final product price, but today this figure has been whittled down to a meagre 8 per cent.
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