This article is from page 14 of the 2011-09-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
N E W M A R K E T- O N – F E RG US woman Sinead Corbett strengthened her claims to be recognised as Ireland’s best female plougher as she took second place in the Under-28 Conventional Category at the National Ploughing Championships in Kildare last week. Sinead, who is a nurse by profession, made history in 2007 when she became the first female to win in a mixed-gender competition at the championships.
Having competed successfully for years in the female ploughing category, known as the ‘farmerettes’, Sinead made the jump over to competing against the male farmers in 2006 and won the U-21 category outright the following year.
Her success is the latest in a long line of successes for the family in the championships, following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather.
Last Tuesday’s competition saw- Sinead square up against the best young ploughers in Ireland in the final of the Under-28 Conventional Competition. Having received 80 points from her first plough, Sinead was sitting in fourth place, behind John O’Brien from Tipperary, Aiden Kelly from Longford and Robert John Barry from Cork going into the last plough of the final. The Newmarket woman showed great composure in the final minutes of the competition and was one of the few contestants to improve on her score in the second round of ploughing – registering 84 points, enough to lift her into second place overall.
Sinead is currently on a well deserved break abroad but, speaking after her previous victory, she said that she was not phased by competing against the lads. “I’m used to ploughing against the lads at this stage and I suppose they are used to me. When I started, I used to get a bit of slagging but that’s the way it goes. I guess they have changed their minds. As long as you can plough, that’s all that matters as far as I’m concerned,” she said.
Sinead’s grandfather, John, won the All-Ireland Junior Horse competition in Wexford in 1960, while her father Frank won the All-Ireland Junior Tractor competition in 1997 and 2003.
Sinead was the top-placing Clare plougher at this year’s competition but there were a number of other notable performances, including Barry Donnellan who competed in the Under-21 Conventional Class; Patrick Quinn in the 3 Furrow Conventional Class; John Joe Donnellan in the Junior Conventional Class; Eanna Cronin in the Under-40 Horse Class; Jim Cronin in the Senior Horse Class; and John White in the Vintage Two Furrow Mounted Class.