Patrick Shalvey laughs in the face of the Guinness World records.
It seems you can’t walk around a corner in Cavan these days without someone attempting to, or succeeding in smashing a world record.
Earlier this week, we saw Cavan butcher Barry John Crowe break the record for sausage-making by cooking 78 sausages (that’s right, 78) in 60 seconds, while Taz Smith fell agonisingly short of eating eight sausages in one minute that would have sealed his entry in the record books.
All of the records were taken on as part of Big Week on the Farm on RTÉ One this week and on Thursday night, viewers will get to see the most impressive one of all.
The world record for the longest distance reversed by a tractor and trailer, you won’t be surprised to learn, was held by an Irishman, Eamonn Hickson from Kerry, who reversed a tractor and trailer for a distance of 17.36 kilometres back in August 2014.
Farmer Patrick Shalvey (above), whose family are hosting Big Week on the Farm on their dairy farm in Cootehill, Co Cavan, decided to take on that record and not only did he beat it, he smashed it, reversing his 30-year old tractor for a distance of 20.16 kilometres, breaking the previous record by 2.8 kilometres.
Footage of the attempt and GPS tracker information were sent to Guinness World Records for verification and on tonight’s Big Week on the Farm, Guinness World Records adjudicator Jack Brockbank confirmed that Patrick had broken the record.
Speaking after learning he had broken the record, Patrick said: “I’m thrilled with that result. It is just fantastic. It was very enjoyable doing it and I had great help along the road. It is fantastic to be able to beat Kerry in something!
“It was two and a half hours and my neck was a bit sore afterwards but I had a bit of physio. It was worth it – to get that result tonight was really, really good”.
Consider yourself privileged to be alive to witness something as momentous as this; we might never see the like of it again.
Clip via RTÉ
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