Day two of the National Ploughing Championships saw the trade arena closed to the public, due to ongoing (weather-related) safety concerns.

The following pictures provide an indicator as to why the National Ploughing Association (NPA) resorted to this dramatic course of action.

Extensive damage is evident on exhibits across the site. Some stands (marquees and associated structures) were severely damaged by strong winds and gusts; a small number were up-ended or turned over.

Notably, many other stands escaped relatively unscathed. However, there were few areas of the exhibition area that weren’t impacted in some way by the storm.

This picture gallery (below) shows many of the worst-affected trade stands – dotted about the sprawling exhibition grounds.

Click on a thumbnail in the gallery (below) to open up a full-size image; once opened you can scroll sideways to see the next picture.

Weather conditions originally forced the NPA to delay the opening time of the event to 11:00am this morning. But this was later pushed back to 12:00pm.

However, due to the severity of the weather conditions, the full day has had to be cancelled.

Met Eireann issued a Status Orange weather warning for wind for 17 counties across the northern, western and midlands regions yesterday evening (Tuesday, September 18).

The wind warning was originally in place for counties Mayo, Galway, Sligo, Roscommon, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Dublin, Kildare, Longford, Louth, Offaly, Westmeath, Meath, Clare and Kerry.

Stay tuned to AgriLand for further updates…