At the ploughing, in the Department of Agriculture tent a group of Cork people (from somewhere else, Not West Cork people) were heard to wonder how the local contingent were so strong in the ploughing: ‘sure they’ve no tillage down there’.

It is not for us to wonder at the illusions that other people have of us, or what misconceptions they have, only that out of the 25 West Cork ploughmen and ploughwomen that made their way to Offaly, 10 came home with silverware.

What is a bit disappointing, however, is the brazen way in which every company, influencer, manufacturer and quango has jumped on the Ploughing bandwagon now that muck is sexy all of a sudden, but there is scant coverage of the skill itself.

A lot of news coverage is focused on the brown-bread making success in which our own Áine Cotter got a deserved mention (another West Cork success), but nevertheless, one would like to see a bit of glory given to the men and women upon which this whole horse-and-pony show is tethered to, sometimes literally.

Everyone has an opinion when the price of beef goes up, or the words ‘national herd’ are heard on RTÉ1 outside of the Saturday morning farming show, or the subject of fertiliser comes up. The counter-argument to the discussion of rising food prices heard more than once was ‘sure, 80% of our food is imported anyway’. Do those that utter these words know why? Have they educated themselves on where the broccoli they pick up is from, or do they just scan the labels to see which is cheapest?

Have an opinion, but make it an educated one. You can’t just pull on the wellies when you’re jumping on the bandwagon.

And they’re off

Finally, the business of an election can get underway with three candidates on the ballot paper: Heather Humphreys for Fine Gael, Jim Gavin for Fianna Fáil, and Catherine Connolly for the Independents. Despite the crying from some corners of the supposed undemocratic process of nominating a would-be candidate, it’s hard to agree when this process meant a lot of  nonsense candidates fell, or were forced to jump, at an early hurdle.

A lot of people put their hands up for the job who weren’t fit to run a race, never mind the country, even symbolically. Of the 25 candidates who were to present themselves in front of Cork County Council this week, just six turned up to make their case.

Decisions are made by those who show up. The argument that the government parties have undue influence might be valid, but that’s democracy. They were elected, by definition, by the majority. Those who would criticise the government have until January 2029 to convince the voting population of their merits; they would want to start now though, and calling for a minute’s silence for a man across the water who’s most famous for a podcast is a poor way to convince anyone they’re fit to lead a country.