They'll be donning the wellies in Castlecomer on New Year's Day for one of the country's most extraordinary festivals.
Now in its 22nd year, the annual wellington race, with attendant festivities, attracts thousands of people to the small Kilkenny town. Saturday's event is likely to be the biggest yet.
Apart from the main activity, a three-mile race through the countryside in which all the participants wear wellingtons, the big attraction is the parade of a variety of elaborate floats which are now being knocked into shape.
The people responsible for this madness are a local group known as the "Powley boys" - Gerry Dunne, Paddy Whelan, Donal Dunne and the "King of the Powley" himself, Bernie Whelan - who come from Powleyvale, just outside Castlecomer.
On St Stephen's Day in 1978 the lads decided to run off the effects of the Christmas dinner by having a race. Underfoot conditions made wellingtons essential. A tradition was born and by 1981 two farsighted Castlecomer businessmen, Mr Jim Bollard, a publican, and the late Mr Seamus Brennan, approached the Powley boys with a view to having the event moved to the town.
As well as bringing large numbers of people to Castlecomer - the event has been known to attract crowds of more than 10,000 - it also raises substantial sums for charity. "We must be the only organisation in the country to have a bank balance of £12,000 to £13,000 on New Year's Day and have that down to nil by February 14th," said Mr Ger "Chubby" Brennan, a member of the wellington race committee.
While the main event is now in Castlecomer on New Year's Day, the original Powleyvale race still takes place every St Stephen's Day.
The organisers are proud of the unique way the festival is prepared and run. While the floats will be imaginative with topical messages - "I'd say Charlie Haughey features prominently this year," said Mr Brennan - work on putting them together doesn't begin in earnest until St Stephen's Day.
And if you pass through Castlecomer too early or too late, you'll see no sign whatsoever that the town does anything other than sleep off the new year's excesses. "Up to 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. on New Year's Eve there's nothing to tell you what's on the next day," said Mr Brennan. "Then the bunting comes out and the town is transformed. As soon as it's over, it all comes down again. It all happens within 24 hours."
The racehorse trainer Jim Bolger will open the event on Saturday, which begins at 1.30 p.m. with the wellington race from Castlecomer Catholic church. Last year there were more than 400 runners, many of them in fancy dress in preparation for the parade which followed. This year's parade is due to begin at about 3 p.m.