The Celtic Tiger hit rural Ireland with a bang yesterday when an astonishing crowd officially estimated at 74,000 attended the National Ploughing Championships in Birr, Co Offaly.
In blazing sunshine the 500-acre site was packed to capacity with people from all over the country visiting the 800 trade stands and the ploughing competitions.
In fact the event has grown so large that Ms Anna May McHugh, who has run the event for many years, has decided to call a halt to the growth to prevent the ploughing from becoming a victim of its own success.
She told a press conference yesterday that never in her wildest dreams did she expect the event to grow so large. There were more people in Birr yesterday than at the All-Ireland Football Final in Dublin last Sunday.
"I am going to put a limit on the number of trade stands. It cannot be allowed to grow over 800. It's just getting too big," she said. The primary purpose of the event was to stage the ploughing competitions and she would like to see them grow even larger.
"But the size of the trade area limits the capacity of the ploughing site, and you find that the ploughing competitions are farther and farther away from the centre."
The huge crowds put a lot of strain on the on-site services with delays getting off and on the site near Birr.
Companies such as Coca-Cola with the franchise for selling soft drinks on the site found themselves perilously close to running out of stock by last evening.
The bars were packed to capacity and trade stands all over the site ran out of promotional material.
People had difficulty in getting walking space on the trackways laid out around the five-mile frontage of the trade stands and the car-parks had to be extended to allow those coming to the site to get in.
If anything, yesterday could have been called "Ladies' Day" with the attendance of two of the presidential candidates, Ms Mary Banotti and Prof Mary McAleese.
Ms Banotti spent six hours canvassing and meeting people. She said she would have had to travel tens of thousands of miles to make contact with the number of people she met yesterday.
It was also a special day for another woman, Ms Fiona Claffey, from Cappagh, Ballinahown, Co Offaly, who was named Queen of the Plough when she won the Farmerette ploughing competition.
Ms Claffey, who is a Department of Agriculture official working in the REPS and Early Retirement Section in Athlone, has been ploughing competitively since 1990.
"It was very tough and I am delighted at my win," she said after the three-hour competition. She had been taught to plough by her brother-in-law, she added.
Wexford's Mr Martin Kehoe, world champion ploughman and many times Irish champion, confirmed his dominant position again yesterday by winning the senior national competition for the 12th time.
Large crowds are expected again today, but the final day of the event is traditionally not so busy. However, with the experience of the last two days, who knows?