Father and son to compete in Carlow

Despite their relative newcomer status in loy digging circles, Liam Dolan and his son are looking forward to their trip to Fenagh to compete in the National Ploughing Championships.
It was just last year when Liam, in his mid-40s first lifted a loy competitively. His son, also Liam, at just 16 has followed in his father’s mucky footsteps into the rural pursuit this year. While they had never competed, the pair were familiar with the ploughing scene, having supported Liam Senior’s brother Michael at matches as he competed in the vintage two furrow with tractor and plough.
“I was helping him for a lock of years and enjoyed the camaraderie with the other ploughmen and that – they’re a very relaxed bunch.”
An attraction of the pastime is that it gives the Dolans an excuse to explore locations they may not otherwise have seen. For instance, with the Carlow event looming, they recently ventured to Raphoe in east Donegal where, incidentally they both achieved very respectable third places in the match.
“The scenery on a nice Saturday afternoon, it would do you good. We have competed in Mayo, Sligo and Roscommon – you see a lot of the country travelling around as well.”
In addition to farming, Liam senior is the service manager with Brady’s Volkswagen garage in Arva. Liam junior, according to his dad, is a great help around the family’s suckler farm, on the outskirts of Arva.
“He’s just after taxing and insuring his first tractor,” says Liam.
Was it a battle to get a teenager involved in loy digging?
“It was him that looked to get a loy himself – because he’d have been helping out with me and his uncle at the ploughing matches also, I suppose he had seen the bit of craic and fun there was to be had and the days out and travelling around, so he wanted to get into it himself.”

Shared hobby
Liam Junior competes at under 18 grade and has already won a couple of matches. The Celt notes that it’s lovely for a father and son to have shared hobby. 
“I’d be very proud of him, for what he has achieved,” says Liam senior.
Asked if Mrs Dolan gets fed up when the dinner chat turns to loy digging, Liam laughs: “No she encourages him all the way, and is glad to see him go off and not looking into a computer screen. 
“It gets us out and about, he’s very enthusiastic about the ploughing, and he’s big into reading – he always has his head stuck in a book, so we’re lucky enough that way, he’s heading in the right direction.”
Liam junior’s also a member of Arva Trotters, and runs a 10k run every Sunday; he’s also a member of Ballinamore Boxing Club.
“He’s just got his paperwork now, so he’s hoping this year he’ll be ready to compete.”
It’d be a foolish move for anyone to slag him off about loy digging, the Celt jokes.
“He’s very controlled with it,” laughs Liam Senior.
Liam Senior also seems to have a natural ability at loy digging, although he recalls wielding one in his youth.
“We would have used them years ago for digging ridges for spuds. There was always a loy about the house.”
The sport is physically demanding, requires accuracy, and all against the clock.
“To have it done within the timescale, you wouldn’t be stopping for a rest too often, you’d be going fairly hard at it, but like that you would be conscious of keeping it straight, keeping it tidy, keeping it level”
Regardless he’s won a few matches in his first two years competing, and was thrilled to have placed third in last year’s National Ploughing Championships in Screggan, where Storm Ali did her level best to have the event cancelled.
Liam admits to have been nervous on his first outing.
“You were competing against the clock, and you were competing against people from all Ireland – people that you kind of looked up to over the years – so you would have been a bit nervous. This year I would be better prepared, I’d have more confidence anyway – that’s not to say it’s fairly competitive.”
Buoyed by that success he and Liam Junior invested in new loys from well known Donegal loy maker, Gerry Mallon.
“It’s made of Danish ash,” explains Liam of his new tool of choice. “It seems to be a lighter and stronger ash than Irish ash, so it suits for the job we’re at.”
While they will be giving each other moral support, when it comes to digging competitors are totally on their own.
“You are given 2hr 45 min to dig two complete ridges, which for the junior and senior are 30ft long ridges; for U18 they are 20ft long,” explains Liam.
Feedback from two sets of judges’ scorecards means  that from one match to the next the competitors know where they need to polish up their technique.
“At the moment I’m working on the outside furrows – straightness is okay, I’m working on the pack and the flesh, basically that it’s level and even. When you turn over the sod, that the next one you turn over is the exact same height, that you don’t have a tall one and a low one – and that you have decent shape as well to it,” he says.

Realistic
Liam Senior is hopeful of repeating his achievement of 2018, “if not a wee bit better”. 
“For someone that’s at it two years, you’d be realistic that there’s men that’s at it for as long as I remember, so you have tough enough competition, but you’d be hoping to do better than you did last year.”
Liam was eager to express his gratitude to the local ploughing club.
“I would like to thank Cavan Ploughing Club for all the help and encouragement I have received and wish all my fellow competitors the best of luck in the national ploughing championships.”