Ireland's first ever festival-based black pudding-making competition is set to take place in Kilteely, Co. Limerick later this month.

The event will be held on Sunday, August 31 as part of this year’s Kilteely Dromkeen Community Festival.

Agriland spoke to chief organiser Noel O'Dea to see what inspired him to set up the competition.

He said: "When I was growing up, my mother used to make black pudding, and all the neighbours made their own black pudding too.

"Anytime a pig was killed, people made black pudding, and in just one generation the art has died out. So we want to attempt to revive the tradition by holding this event and try and capture old recipes that people might have.

"It was very common for people to have pigs, as Limerick was famous for pork and bacon. Mattersons and Shaws would have been pig factories down here, and a lot of people would have been rearing pigs locally for them."

There will be two classes - butchers and a homemade category. Competitors will pre-make their black pudding prior to the event.

The competition will involve an interview process, whereby contestants will be asked how they made the black pudding and where they sourced the ingredients.

Kate Ryan, a food writer with Flavour.ie and Chris Towers, director of Food Story PR have been enlisted to judge the competition.

O'Dea described how organisation of the competition has progressed so far.

He said: "It's really about getting the word out at the moment, and hopefully it will grow from here, year-on-year.

"This event is part of an annual festival we have every year, and it's been going for a good few years now. We were looking for a new focal point and we thought the black pudding competition might be a good idea."

There's about eight entries in total for the event so far and O'Dea is appealing for more people to take part.

Further details about the competition can be found on the kilteely_dromkeenfestival Instagram page.