In 1973, Ireland was a country on the cusp of social and economic change. We joined the European Economic Community (EEC), reshaping our trade, agriculture and economic future; the Fifth Amendment removed the special position of the Catholic Church from the Irish constitution; and the long-standing Marriage Ban, which forced women working in the public sector to resign when they married, was lifted.
Change was all around and in a meeting on Parnell Street in Dublin, a woman by the name of Anna May McHugh was voted in as managing director of the National Ploughing Championships.
Anna May says when she heard her name announced, “my pen refused to write. I was taking the minutes of the meeting, and I was so shocked. I genuinely had no idea I was going to be appointed.”
Anna May, who at that stage had held the role of secretary of the National Ploughing Championships for 21 years, continues, “What I later learned was that the week before, the chief agricultural officer, a man by the name of Michael T Connolly, held a meeting in his home in Wexford with six members of the executive. They decided then that I was the most suitable person to be appointed, that I knew the Ploughing inside out.”
Notable appointment
It was a notable appointment – a woman leading an organisation, practically unheard of at the time. On farms, although women made a massive contribution to farming life, their role was often not recognised – formally or otherwise. In 1973, it was considered that a woman’s place was in the home but here was Anna May stepping up to lead an organisation predominantly of men. The move was significant but not always easy, she says.
“I remember coming home saying to my husband John, ‘I feel a weight on my shoulders now. I have a big responsibility’. But I had the executive behind me.”
This was important because Anna May says she initially faced resentment carrying out her role.
“I had to overcome that resentment, really, but when I was able to answer the queries that were put to me, with the help of the male members I should add, I got through it. But there would have been resentment from some men [that I held the role]. As the years went on, eventually I got great admiration from both men and women.”
I brought the children any time I could when I was going to the event and so they both got into the Ploughing because it was our life, it was morning, noon and night. Breakfast, dinner and tea, we were nothing but ploughing
One thing that garnered respect was the vision Anna May had for the Ploughing. Today, the National Ploughing Championships attracts 243,000 people over the three days with over 1,500 exhibitors. But Anna May recalls a time, “when we had 25 stands, mapping them out on a little drawing of the field.”
Anna May knew that to build the ploughing, she would need to think beyond the ploughing. A simple loaf of brown bread proved to be a catalyst for change.
“In 1954, my predecessor JJ Bergin introduced the brown bread baking competition, which was then sponsored by ESB. It went on for years, and then it lapsed.”
Anna May was determined to bring it back, cognisant that it added wider appeal to the event... and then came the fashion show.“I remember in 1984, at a council meeting, asking for permission to run a fashion show. I can still see the man sitting in the front row, standing up saying “Chairman, I thought it was a ploughing match we were running.” And there wasn’t a word spoken after that.”
Fashion show
But that didn’t stop Anna May. “I said to myself, ‘I’m having a fashion show and I did, and it has been very successful. In 1988, we added the livestock. Then there’s the shopping arcades, the business arcades, the lifestyle. All of that was to add interest – to attract a broad range of people, even those not interested in the ploughing itself. I remember when you could count on your hand the number of ladies that would come to the Ploughing, now all the family comes. If we just stuck to the ploughing, it wouldn’t have evolved the way it did.”
As well as vision, there was also pressure on Anna May to prove herself – and that she did. In 1997, she was the first woman to be elected to the board of the World Ploughing Championships.
“I did feel pressure, of course I did. I’d never count the hours that I put into my work. If there was a job to be done, I would work until midnight, but the young people don’t want to hear that. They think I got it all handed to me, but I didn’t. The Ploughing, it really controlled my life but I’m not sorry for that. I enjoyed it.”
But Anna May is quick to credit the support of others. “People say to me, you’re a legend and all that kind of thing. And I said no, everyone puts an awful lot of work into this event. I cannot take all the credit for what I have achieved. I got good help along the way. Okay, I guided people, I directed them all right, but if I didn’t have the people with me, it wouldn’t have happened.”
Oh, we were shocked beyond words. I was absolutely heartbroken. The hardest thing I ever had to do was to leave the house that September to go to the Ploughing Championships. Because I was going without him. He was always there
The National Ploughing Championships is a family affair. Anna May’s daughter Anna Marie is one of the assistant managing directors of the association while her son DJ is a plough man. He was chairman at both club and county level as well as a national judge of the ploughing. When Anna May first became managing director, DJ was six and Anna Marie was four.
“I brought the children any time I could when I was going to the event and so they both got into the Ploughing because it was our life, it was morning, noon and night. Breakfast, dinner and tea, we were nothing but ploughing.”
But Anna May says that none of it would have been possible without the support of her husband John, who passed away in 2007.
“I had a very understanding husband. He gave me that, and we farmed as well. He never stood in my way. Had I not had a supportive husband, I wouldn’t have been able to work the way I did. And John, he was very wise. If I came home from a meeting upset about something someone said, he would always say wait until tomorrow to tell them off.
“Then morning would come and I’d feel different,” she says, adding, “he was that stable, solid person in my life. He was a quiet man but a great storyteller.”
Although John wasn’t well at the time of his passing, his death was a real shock. John had late onset diabetes and developed a clot in his leg.
“He went to Dublin for a procedure to move the clot. That morning, DJ and his wife Fiona came in and said to myself and Anna Marie, “You go away there and have a cup of tea, and we’ll be here with Daddy.”
“We weren’t gone long when we got a call from Fiona to say there was an issue with the clot and to come back, that the doctors wanted to talk to us. By the time we got back John had died. The clot had travelled to his heart and he had a massive heart attack.”
Quietly she says, “Oh, we were shocked beyond words. I was absolutely heartbroken. The hardest thing I ever had to do was to leave the house that September to go to the Ploughing Championships. Because I was going without him. He was always there.”
Tough and sensitive
Anna May says that nearly 20 years later, she still feels a connection to John. “No matter where I go, he’s always on my mind. And often if I have a problem, I say a little prayer to John, and I feel that he is that close to me. I pray to him every night.
“And I’m not ashamed to cry, no one should ever be ashamed to cry. I would be very sensitive like that. You know, some people say I’m tough, some people call me Maggie Thatcher, do you know that? But look in this job, you have to be tough. It’s not your own money you’re spending; it all belongs to the association. So you have to be tough. But I have a very sensitive side too.”
Now aged 92 and with no intention of retiring, Anna May says she can hardly believe where the years have gone.
“I still remember heading off on my bicycle when I was 17 to give JJ Bergin a hand for a few weeks.”
Before JJ passed away in 1958, Anna May recalls walking on the beach with him in Tramore. “JJ said to me [in relation to the association and the event], “When I’m not here, I hope I’m leaving behind a working machine. But I often say I was that working machine.”
Anna May McHugh is the keynote speaker at the Women & Agriculture conference in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Little Island, Cork, on 29 October, supported by FBD Insurance. Information on the Women & Agriculture conference, scan the QR code below with your phone.
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