THERE WERE jubilant scenes at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin last night when the Irish Farmers’ Association elected its first ever Kilkennyman, John Bryan (51), as its president.
The former garda who pounded the beat around Dublin’s Pearse Street from 1977 to 1980 before his aunt left him a farm and he returned to his native Inistioge, had a decisive victory over his two rivals for the post.
From early yesterday when the sorting of votes from the 947 branches began, it was clear the former head of the organisation’s beef committee had crushed the challenge of deputy president Derek Deane, Carlow, and of Richard Kennedy, Limerick.
Mr Bryan, who travelled as many as 500 miles a day to canvass, won all the regional contests in one of the highest turnouts in an IFA election.
Mr Bryan, who succeeds Pádraig Walshe next month to become the IFA’s 13th president, won 56 per cent of the branch votes around the country with a final tally of 1,147 branch votes, beating his nearest rival by nearly two to one.
Mr Deane, the outgoing deputy president, received 28 per cent of the vote with 568 branch votes, and Mr Kennedy, the Limerick dairy farmer, came in with 16 per cent of the poll on 316 branch votes.
Elected as Mr Bryan’s deputy for the next four years was Eddie Downey from Slane, Co Meath, chairman of Meath IFA and former farm business chairman, who defeated Seán O’Leary of Cork, who was the outgoing Munster vice-president of the IFA.
The president elect’s wife Rena and their two children, Cathy and James, were at the centre to witness the victory as he was carried shoulder high around the count centre, where close to 1,000 farmers from across the country had travelled to support their candidates.
Mr Bryan, who farms 230 acres in Kilkenny, where he runs a dry stock farm, said the size of his victory indicated he had received the support of all sectors in the IFA – dairy, sheep, tillage and beef.
He described the IFA as a great organisation which was the lifeblood of rural Ireland, which generated €8.5 billion for the economy and 280,000 jobs, and called for a common-sense approach to the future.
He paid tribute to the defeated candidates and said the IFA was very lucky to have candidates of such calibre.
Mr Bryan, who spearheaded the campaign that led to the banning of Brazilian beef into the EU when he highlighted the lack of traceability and controls, earning the nickname “Brazilian Bryan”, said all Irish farmers were seeking was a level playing pitch in international markets.
Irish farmers, he said, should target the high-quality EU markets where there were 200 million middle-class rich consumers who would value the quality food being produced here.
The two defeated candidates offered their support to the new president. Mr Bryan will take over at the organisation’s agm on January 12th in the Bluebell headquarters of the organisation.