Joe Rea: Joe Rea, who has died aged 69, was a former president of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) and chairman of Teagasc, the farm research and advisory body.
Noted for the campaigns he led to protect farm incomes, he saw the IFA as a union for farmers. And while he regularly crossed swords with the trade union movement, he led the IFA into social partnership.
He secured a vital agreement with the government in 1987 which ensured that farmers would be taxed on their income rather than land holdings, thereby assuaging fears that asset-rich cash-poor farmers would be penalised. His public statements were enlivened by a colourful turn of phrase.
Dismissing "lucky bag" concessions from the government on one occasion, he said they were not worth "the price of a few Mars bars". Speaking of the need for unity between the two main farm organisations, he said: "What we're talking about is actual survival. We don't want to go back to wheelbarrow and bicycle agriculture."
Current IFA president Pádraig Walshe described him as a "talented and determined representative of farmers". David Begg, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said he was a "decent and honest man and a fine farm leader".
He was born in 1938 near Cahir, Co Tipperary. Following his father's premature death he left school at the age of 14 to work on the family farm. By 1979, when he decided to give up his highly profitable milk enterprise, he had a 170-cow herd.
Aided by the EEC's Dairy Conversion Scheme, he switched from milk production to tillage, growing sugar beet, winter wheat and malting barley.
As a young farmer he attended a diploma course in social science, run by UCC, at his local technical school. The course, he acknowledged, changed his life, giving him an appreciation of politics and economics.
In 1967 he became national president of Macra na Feirme, subsequently joining what was then the National Farmers' Association (NFA). He played a leading role in the association's campaign in favour of Irish membership of the EEC. By 1976 the NFA had become the IFA and he was elected as a deputy to Paddy Lane's president. Their four years in office were among the most exciting for Irish agriculture. Farmers' incomes rose dramatically as the sector boomed. It was a good time to be a farmer. But the IFA leaders would not say so, least of all Joe Rea.
In 1980 he contested the IFA presidency but was decisively defeated by Donal Cashman, who received 70 per cent of the vote. Successful in 1984, he was appointed unopposed and went on to serve a second two-year term. His presidency coincided with Garret FitzGerald's term as taoiseach. However, he saw the Fine Gael-Labour government as "Dublin 4 orientated", with little or no understanding of rural Ireland.
His antipathy to "Dublin 4" led him to condemn the "Dart train set" which, he said, had cost "the equivalent of 18 Knock airports". In 1986 he alleged that the government had taken no notice of adverse weather conditions that year "until flooding came to Ballsbridge and trendy little cottages along the Dodder".
He apologised after other leaders of the farming community dissociated themselves from his remarks. A Macra na Feirme spokesperson said the country needed an exacerbation of the urban-rural divide "like a hole in the head". A critic of the State and public sectors, he applauded the privatisation of public utilities by the Thatcher government in Britain. He welcomed the closure of Irish Shipping as the "shooting of a white elephant".
In 1988 he was appointed as the first chairman of Teagasc. But he described his five-year term as the "most frustrating experience" of his career. He complained that the decisions taken by the board were not implemented, and that the organisation had employed 80 people without telling anyone.
As chairman of the N8 Action Group he had threatened to contest the 2001 Tipperary South byelection amid concerns over a planned motorway in his area. While the group supported upgrading the N8, he said that a dual carriageway would destroy one of Ireland's scenic areas - the valley between the Galtee Mountains on one side and the Knockmealdowns and the Comeraghs on the other.
In 2004 he criticised the organisation he had once led for setting up "IFA countryside" to let hunting, fishing, shooting and walking enthusiasts have associate membership for a €65 fee. It was, he said, like selling a precious inheritance.
In recent years he sought to defend the interests of farmer shareholders of Greencore. Following the closure of the Carlow sugar processing factory in 2006, he expressed his indignation at the prospect of there being inadequate compensation for beet producers.
For many years he contributed a column to the Irish Farmers' Journal, and his milk league tables were particularly popular. A former chairman of the Farm Apprenticeship Board, he set up the Grow Fund at the height of the Ethiopian famine in the 1980s. He was a keen hurling fan.
His wife Margaret, sons Michael and Martin, and daughter Trina survive him.
Joe Rea: born April 1938; died June 30th, 2007.
