REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A GALA FUNCTION IN THE RDS TO MARK THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE IFA
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A GALA FUNCTION IN THE RDS TO MARK THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRISH FARMERS' ASSOCIATION
Dia dhíbh go léir. Tá áthas orm bheith anseo libh inniu. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an fáilte a thug sibh dom.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to be with you today on this special and historic occasion. I am particularly happy to share in the sense of achievement and celebration which characterises this event and to share also in recognition and acknowledgement of the efforts of so many people over the past half-century, many of whom are happily with us today.
Fifty years ago today, in a building perhaps only two miles from here, the National Farmers’ Association was founded. The Ireland into which the fledgling organisation emerged was a very different one to the Ireland of today. Poverty, unemployment, hardship and emigration were prevalent throughout the country. Life was tough in both town and rural areas. For most of our population, the most mundane of tasks involved an effort out of all proportion to what would be involved today. In farming, the era of mechanisation had not yet arrived in any significant way and the business of running the family farm was labour-intensive to a degree that today’s generation could hardly imagine. It is an era captured so effectively by Seamus Heaney in his poem ‘At a Potato Digging’,
Processional stooping through the turf
Recurs mindlessly as autumn. Centuries
Of fear and homage to the famine god
Toughen the muscles behind their humbled knees,
Make a seasonal altar of the sod.
In those times, water was still drawn by hand from wells on many farms and the rural electrification programme had still to reach many areas of the country. Very few farm families owned a car. Much of the work was done by hand, farming was by and large mixed and tasks were invariably shared by both adults and children in the typical farm family. It was the era of horses rather than tractors, of cattle being driven on foot to the mart, of the creamery cans being brought by each farmer to the small local dairy or left at the end of the lane for collection. It was the era of the scythe and of long days of toil, sowing, reaping and gathering in crops from the fields. The trade in agricultural produce was essentially confined to our neighbouring island and the European Economic Community, later to be the European Union, was a far-away entity which was the preserve of a few Continental European countries. Few Irish farmers managed anything which could be called a holiday in the sense that we understand it today. If they did get away for a few days it might be to one of the coastal resort towns or villages, where “himself” and “herself” might spend a gentle week of tea-rooms and strolls while mustering their resources for another twelve months of sheer hard work.
A quick look at the history of the NFA gives a sense of the state of development of Irish agriculture at the time. Ireland was a country barely able to feed its own population. Almost a third of what a farmer produced was necessarily consumed by his or her own family. National milk production was in or around 250 million gallons, a volume which could today be matched by a single major co-op. Ireland imported almost 5,000 tonnes of butter. Bacon and other products were also imported. Our export of rabbits was double our export of sheepmeat! A typical farmer of the day might produce enough to feed seven people whereas today productivity is seven or eight times that level.
But amidst all the long days, the toil and demands of the time, could be found those invaluable elements which have stood to this country time and again, in good times and bad. There was the strength of family. There was a vibrant neighbourliness. There was a highly organized and interdependent community. There was a profound attachment to place and to heritage. There was a broad set of shared beliefs and values in which self-sacrifice was dominant - for there was a formidable determination to banish the hardships and deprivations which had long characterised life in rural Ireland and to give succeeding generations a better life than their forebears had endured. Nowhere was this more evident than in the utter selflessness of the sacrifices made by the farming community to educate their children and to equip them to build new lives and eventually a new Ireland.
Against this backdrop, as in generations before, there came forward men and women of vision who captured the sense of the country and married aspiration with achievement ... men and women who helped drive the further social and economic development of Ireland, sometimes against great odds. It was just such people who founded the National Farmers’ Association in Harcourt Street on 6 January, 1955. It was their focus and clarity of purpose which laid the solid foundations for what is now the Irish Farmers’ Association and it is thanks to them we gather in celebration today of a half century of phenomenal achievement.
Today the IFA has some 85,000 members, spread across almost 950 branches throughout the length and breadth of Ireland. From this democratic base, and with the invaluable involvement of some 3 000 elected voluntary staff, the support of some 60 full-time staff at regional and national levels and a consistently high-profile national leadership, the organisation is at the heart of developments affecting Irish agriculture and farm families. More than that it is at the heart of Irish political, civic and cultural life, the well of deep resource from which the nation draws. Ours is a nation transformed and yours is an industry and way of life which has changed most dramatically. A once widespread but undeveloped industry has given way to a hugely confident, accomplished, diversified and globalised industry run by considerably fewer people. The IFA has been the voice of the farming community on that roller-coaster journey, campaigning tirelessly on issues which concern its members and their customers at home and abroad. It is an important partner in the national social partnership which over the past two decades and more has been pivotal to Ireland’s enviable economic success. The deep-rooted links between town and country were showcased at their best during the foot and mouth crisis a few years ago when the towns and cities of Ireland suddenly sprouted disinfectant mats at every entrance to every building - a gesture of solidarity and shared responsibility as well as a recognition of the debt we owe the land for the many blessings it has given us.
Yours is an industry at the mercy of so many capricious things from weather to consumer confidence, to say nothing of the rapid pace of change which shows no sign of abating given recent changes in the Common Agriculture Policy and prospective further developments at World Trade Organisation level. But the canny mix of foresight, adaptability, experience and commitment which has served the IFA to date is a growing and robust resource base for the challenges that lie ahead - just as the challenges faced and transcended over these fifty years are a source of reassurance for the future.
Some of the surviving founder-members of the NFA are with us today. They are the people who prised open a closed box and let the future in. As they survey the landscape of opportunity they helped to create, they must today feel a burning pride which we are privileged to share. The baton has passed to a new generation, the best-educated in our history, the first to grow up in an Ireland liberated from the burdens of emigration and high unemployment; a confident generation doing business in every part of the globe and spectacularly revealing the exceptional genius of Ireland in vindication of all those hard years and hard lives.
As the Chinese proverb says - let those who drink the water remember with gratitude those who dug the well. We do that here today, giving thanks for those whose public-spiritedness and commitment to Ireland’s future led to the foundation of this great farming organization. You would be hard put to find a better example of practical patriotism. To them and to their families I say on behalf of all of us a big “thank you” and “well-done”. This golden jubilee was hard-earned. Enjoy it and turn to the future with that same determination that brought you thus far, proud of what you have accomplished and proud of what your country has accomplished with your help. My very best wish for the years which lie ahead.