Plough Sunday

On Sunday the 12th of January, we will celebrate Plough Sunday in Nenagh Union.

This will take the form of a Union Service held in Templederry Church at 11.00am and is a service with specific relevance to the Agricultural Year. Traditionally, agricultural work ceased during the 12 Days of Christmas and then there was a Blessing of the Ploughs (at the time, the animal-drawn plough was the most sophisticated piece of agricultural equipment known) to indicate the restarting of agricultural work that could be paused, as opposed to that work that had to be done daily for the welfare of animals.

Traditionally a plough was brought into church or into the churchyard to be blessed as a token of asking God's blessing on the land and then a procession was made, blessing the land as it made its way to a local hostelry where God's bounty was both received and toasted in the form of grain that had been made into beer.

We hope to do something similar this January as we try to revive and modernise this tradition and not just thanking God for his providence at Harvest Thanksgiving but first first putting in the 'hard yards' of prayer for a good harvest first.

Planning is in progress - watch this space for more information!