Three new Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) regional chair positions for Connacht (five counties), Munster (nine counties) and South Leinster (12 counties) have been unveiled tonight (Tuesday, December 12) .
The first regional chair that was confirmed was for Munster – this was contested by Mark Connors from Co. Waterford, and Conor O’Leary from Cork Central.
The votes received by both candidates totaled 2,987.
Conor O’Leary received 1,823 votes and was elected as the new Munster regional chair, while Connors received 1,164 votes.
Connacht
James Gallagher from Co. Leitrim, and Brendan Golden from Co. Mayo contested the regional chair in Connacht.
A total of 1,371 votes were cast for the two candidates.
Brendan Golden received 720 votes compared to 651 votes received by Gallagher.
South Leinster
The role of regional IFA chair for South Leinster was contested by Tom Byrne from Wicklow, Pat Farrell from Kildare and Paul O’Brien from Kilkenny.
There were a total 2,315 votes cast.
Paul O’Brien received the winning number of votes with 1,442 while Pat Farrell came next with 477 votes and Tom Byrne received 396 votes.
IFA elections
The election of the three regional chairs marked the end of months of campaigning by candidates who stood for the role of IFA president, vice-president and regional chair.
The national election count began today (Wednesday, December, 13) at a hotel in west Dublin at 8.30a.m and concluded just after 8:00p.m.
The 17th president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) was confirmed as suckler beef and sheep farmer from Co.Laois, Francie Gorman who beat rival Martin Stapleton – 16,699 votes to 13,210.
Gorman who is from Ballinakill will take over as president of the IFA from Tim Cullinan in January, 2024.
Meanwhile Alice Doyle made history today by becoming the first woman to be elected deputy president of the IFA.
Doyle secured 16,502 votes and comfortably beat off competition from Galway dairy farmer, Pat Murphy who received a total of 12,968 votes.