Anna Marie McHugh
I grew up on a farm close to Ballylinan, Co.Laois, and I have one brother who is a farmer. I am married to a Blackwater, Wexford farmer Declan Buttle and we share living between Laois and Wexford with my mother, husband and young son.
I spent my summers as a teenager working in the NPA office with my mother free gratis but it was great experience. I was quite active as a young person in Macra na Feirme where I held various officerships in my teens at club,
county and then on National Council which was really a great start for me.
I studied Business and Marketing in Carlow IT. During college I spent a summer as a waitress in Isle of Man, another summer as a temp. in a pharmaceutical plant in Clarecastle, Co. Clare.
My first real job was in the Marketing Department of Bord Na Mona where I worked for about 4 months in a temporary position.
I then changed direction completely and became a fulltime professional youth worker with the National Youth Organization Foroige where I worked for 3 years covering the midland region of the country.
There I gained huge experience in people management, mediation, preparing and implementing training programmes, preparing strategies, forward planning and much more – also very importantly self-motivation as I was in an office on my own.
I left that job in 1994 which was really a heart wrenching thing to do but it was time, I joined the National Ploughing Association for a 2 year contract as Co-ordinator of the 1996 World Ploughing Contest which was being hosted in Ireland.
A great experience whereby I had to put together a comprehensive 10 day programme for 400 international visitors to Ireland, I had to package and promote the event and I had to deal with all the finances from sponsorship to costing it out. I had to build an team for implementing the programme and completely co-ordinate every facet of programme.
After that I went as all young people do on my world tour – something that I think every young person really should do whether the economy is good or bad – just make the break and expose yourself to different cultures and experiences, it broadens the mind.
When I came back the NPA offered me a permanent position as Public Relations Officer and Competitor Liaison Officer and I remember being told by the then Chairman that if I earned my salary in sponsorship over the first couple of years there would be a permanent job for me. So I started full time with the NPA in 1997.
Shortly after I decided to take my media studies further so I did a Diploma in PR through the Public Relations Institute of Dublin in the College of Surgeons which was 2 nights a week for 2 years and this was all alongside my work in the NPA. Tough going but an absolute necessity to keep up to date and develop your skills.
As the job developed I became more involved in PR and Marketing in the NPA and then in more recent years my role has expanded to include a great deal of Event Management and that is really about the evolution of the event and the demands that go along with it.
I would be dealing a lot with Emergency Services, Contractors, Stakeholders and pretty much every aspect of the site build and the running of the ploughing site during the 3 days of the Championships.
The NPA is also affiliated to the World Ploughing Organization which has 33 affiliate countries spanning 4 continents.
Seven years ago the position of General Secretary of the World Ploughing became vacant and I applied together with 5 other countries for the job.
Fortunately or unfortunately I often think I got the job which means that the Secretariat of the WPO is now in Ireland for the first time and I am the first female secretary in the 67 year history of the World Organization.
