The National Ploughing Championships almost failed to finish yesterday - because the Tanaiste did not have enough pull in Cork.
Ms Harney had been given the task of firing a flare to signal the end of ploughing for the last championships of the millennium. She pointed the gun in the air and pulled. Nothing happened and there was embarrassment all round. The gun was reloaded, and she tried again. And again nothing happened.
Finally, the managing director of the NPA, the formidable Anna May McHugh, fired the flare, which signalled the end of events at this, the muddiest championships in memory.
Not far from where this little drama was being played out, the cosmetics lady from Dorset was packing away the remainder of her best-selling body sprays for men, "Wet Gundog", "Old Trout", "Pheasant Plucker" and "Green Welly". The muck, she said, had not dampened the humour of the people who had snapped up her goods during the three-day event on the Farrell farm overlooking Castletownroche village.
The 1999 event is already making its way into folklore.
It was, without doubt, a difficult few days for both the organisers and the patrons, who had to plough through a sea of yellow mud in Somme-like conditions.
"Get the last of the wet suits," shouted the street vendor who had made a fortune selling wellingtons and plastic macs. "It was a fine display of underwater ploughing," commented a farmer with a grin as he beat his way to firmer ground on the steel trackways from the ploughing competition plots.
According to Larry Sheedy, who has been running the pressroom for the NPA for many years, this was "muck with attitude" and DIRT without the scandal.
Anna May McHugh described the event as "a miracle" and indicated that she would not allow more than 500 stands at the next championships, which will be in Laois next year.