Padraig Harrington watches his drive on the 18th at Adare Manor

Padraig Harrington hit a superb 68 at a windswept Adare Manor to put himself on course to become the first home winner of the Irish Open in 25 years.

Harrington is on three under and holds a one-shot lead over England's Simon Wakefield, Swede Joakim Backstrom and Argentina's Andres Romero.

Winds gusted to 45mph on a day when only two players broke 70.

"The wind doesn't bother me and I know I have an advantage in that sort of weather," said Harrington.

The 35-year-old Dubliner, looking to become the first Irish winner since John O'Leary in 1982, admits winning his national open is second in importance only to the four major championships.

But the world number 12 knows the pressure will be on as an expectant home crowd looks to him to justify his status as the pre-tournament favourite.

"I think I will treat it as any other round of golf. I'm not going out there thinking 'I'm in the last group in the Irish Open'," added Harrington, last year's European number one.

"I'm going to go out there thinking I'm playing golf to the best of my ability and that's it.

"I want to win this very badly, there's no question about that, but it would be a great achievement if I could go out over the next two days knowing that, and yet play and behave like it's a regular event and a normal day out."

Tees were brought forward for the second day in succession - this time by 321 yards - and Harrington took advantage by carding five birdies and one bogey.

Jeev Milkha Singh crashed to an 82 in the treacherous conditions and overnight joint leader Simon Dyson struggled to a 78.

That was 10 shots worse than his first round and left the former Walker Cup star on two over par, six off the lead.

Ireland's Damian Mooney did improve by 15 shots on his first round, but scores of 92 and 77 were hardly anything to write home about.