It was traffic gridlock on the main Cork to Waterford road yesterday morning as 60,000 motorists suffered major delays as they made their way to the 74th annual National Ploughing Championships in Mogeely, near Midleton, Co Cork.
Motorists started arriving at the site from 7am, many spending up to an hour to make the three-mile journey from Midleton to the east Cork village of Mogeely for the championships, which were officially opened by President Mary McAleese.
Gardaí said yesterday's traffic problems were mainly caused by motorists using one route instead of the three provided. The majority of motorists came from the Cork side, with very few using the Youghal route or the turn-off in Rathcormac for Dungourney.
Supt Liam Hayes, in charge of traffic here, said the problem was twofold: the enormous and unexpected turn-out of people, and the fact that the dual carriageway at Midleton's lakeview roundabout narrowed down into one lane.
This would change for today's event, he said, and the hard shoulder would be used to allow ploughing traffic to filter off towards the site, cutting down on delays. Some drivers spent up to five hours trying to make what is normally a 25-minute journey from Cork to Mogeely. At one stage, tail-backs went as far as Tivoli on the outskirts of Cork city centre.
One motorist told Cork's 96FM that he had been on the road to Mogeely for two hours coming from Cork city. "I don't know. It is a fiasco. We saw three guards at 11 o'clock scooting up. Where were they at eight o'clock?" Meanwhile, a total of 150,000 people are expected to attend the three-day championships at the 400-acre site. Motorists are advised to leave no later than 8am for the remainder of the event.
Anne Marie McHugh of the National Ploughing Association has issued an appeal to members of the public who plan to attend the championships to leave early this morning to minimise traffic jams.