Taoiseach Simon Harris will be among those in attendance at a event to mark 70 years of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) in Co. Wexford next week.
The IFA was founded on the January 6, 1955, when it was known as the National Farmers’ Association (NFA).
Jer O’Mahony, Wexford IFA chair, told Agriland that to mark the milestone a gala dinner will take place at 6:00p.m on Saturday, January 18 in the Riverside Park Hotel in Enniscorthy.
He said that one of the most important aspects of the evening is to hear the stories of IFA members.
“From me, it’s about the history. A lot of people today, and a lot of [IFA] members would not understand the efforts that people 30, 40, 50 years ago put into the IFA.
“We had people put in jail. We had people in the High Court. We had people that walked from the four corners of Ireland to Dublin for the rights of farmers. Nowadays, people get on a tractor to do that, but these people all walked.
“They had very little representation in terms of power. People just didn’t listen to them,” he said.
Along with the Taoiseach, who will be the guest speaker, the event will be attended by IFA president Francie Gorman.
“It will be a great night, it will be full of stories, full of fun. It will also be a reflection for everybody on how far farming has come and changed in the past 70 years, with the help of the IFA,” O’Mahony said.
The beef and tillage farmer from Wellingtonbridge, who is shortly due to finish his term as Wexford IFA chair, added that many of the issues affecting farmers when the association was established still persist today.
Wexford
Alice Doyle, the IFA deputy president, farms at Ballyoughter, Gorey, Co. Wexford, alongside husband Tom on their beef and tillage farm.
She told Agriland said that there is a long and proud history of the IFA in Wexford, which today has 54 branches in the county and has contributed “hugely” in terms of national officers in the association.
In the 1960’s, Doyle said that farmers from across the country took to the roads and walked to Dublin from around the country as part of a national protest for better rights.
She said that around 80 farmers, including some from Wexford, were jailed in Mountjoy prison for a time for refusing to pay fines.
In 1980, a group of farmers from Wexford took a landmark legal action, which resulted in the abolition of rates for farmers.
Doyle said that some IR£60,000 was collected in the county to help the farmers to fight the case.
“It was a massive case and every farmer in the country benefitted from it,” she said.
Doyle also pointed to the IR£50,000 donated by IFA members in Wexford to open the mart in Enniscorthy in 1968, which at the time was the largest covered mart in Europe.
IFA
The IFA deputy president said that tickets for the gala dinner are still available if people wish to attend.
She said the attendance of the Taoiseach at the event reflects the importance of the IFA to the economy and the entire country.
“It will be a good night for nostalgia; it will be a good night to celebrate all that was done over the years.
“I know sometimes people give out and say IFA doesn’t do as much as they would like them to do, but they do an awful lot.
“I think it’s time to celebrate what was done, it brought farmers from the dark ages into the modern world.
“We still continue to fight that case for farmers from an individual basis to a national level,” Doyle said.