A Co. Cork farmer, Denis Keohane, has recently been appointed as the Chairman of the National Ploughing Association (NPA).

Keohane, who is from Clonakilty, was appointed as Chairman at the NPA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abbeyleix in Co. Laois on Thursday, April 27.

Working as both a farmer and contractor, Keohane is the first west Cork Chairman since Larry Sexton in 1961, according to the NPA.

The new Chairman has served as a Director of the NPA for over 20 years. Involved in ploughing since he was a teenager, Keohane has served his apprenticeship as an officer at all levels of the association.

He is a respected ploughing Judge at national and international level and a key figure in the running of the national event, the NPA added.

Padraig Nolan was also elected as Vice Chairman; making history as the first ever officer of the NPA from Co. Roscommon.

It was revealed last October that the 2017 National Ploughing Championships would be returning to Screggan, Tullamore, Co. Offaly.

The confirmation of this year’s venue was made at the prize-giving ceremony for last year’s event, which was attended by over 500 people in the Bridge House Hotel in Tullamore, Co Offaly.

The National Ploughing Championships is scheduled to take place from Tuesday, September 19 to Thursday, September 21.

Plans for this year’s Championships are well underway with exhibition space almost full at this stage, according to the NPA.

In 2016, attendance figures at the event totalled 283,000 people over the course of the three days; making it the most successful National Ploughing Championships in history.

Meanwhile, the NPA’s Managing Director Anna May McHugh also announced that her autobiography will be published in September of this year at the association’s AGM.

“I have been asked many times down through the years ‘when are you writing the book?’, so it has been a long time coming. This is my sixty-sixth year working for the National Ploughing Association and I have lived through many changes and challenges in life, business and society.

“I am enjoying writing my story as it evokes so many memories and I hope readers will find that it’s worth the read,” McHugh said.