Former Clare FM DJ In World Record Attempt At Culchie Festival

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Friday, 08 October 2010 10:41

Written by Senan Hogan

A chef has unveiled a giant boxty dumpling which he hopes to enter in the Guinness Book of Records.

The massive potato-based dish, which contains 250 spuds and took a whopping 36 hours to fully cook, weighs 82kgs and measures one metre long by 0.5 metres wide.

Padraic Og Gallagher, who runs Gallagher’s Boxty House Restaurant in Dublin’s Temple Bar, said: “I used 50kg of Champion variety potatoes from the organic garden in Lissadel House in Co Sligo and 20kg of flour for my recipe.”

The gigantic dumpling will be transported to the Culchie Festival in Mohill, Co Leitrim during the October Bank Holiday weekend where it will be officially examined by officials from the Guinness Book of Records.

Padraig Og is Ireland’s top expert on cooking potato dishes and has even lectured at Oxford University and written a thesis on the issue.

Also at the Culchie Festival, Galway DJ and former Clare FM presenter Fergal Darcy (27) will make a world record attempt to pull on more than 215 pairs of underpants.

The Ballinasloe native, who has now presents drivetime show on the Galway City’s i102-104 FM, aims to beat the total achieved by US youngster Jack Singer (10) in June.

The Culchie Festival, which marks its 21st anniversary this year, puts a group of contestants through various rural-themed tasks to find the King of the Culchies.