John Mooney, who died on October 20th aged 80, was one of the unsung heroes of Irish agriculture.
The founder and original owner of the modern Irish Farmers Journal, he played a major part in charting the development of Irish farming over the past half-century.
Although he shunned publicity, his commitment to Irish farming and its development was boundless. His legacy not only includes the Journal, but he was also prominently involved in the creation of the National Farmers' Association, which later became the Irish Farmers' Association, and in the development of the Agricultural Institute, now Teagasc. He was chairman of Gorta between 1974 and 1979.
A native of Carbury, Co Kildare, John Mooney was elected national chairman of Macra na Feirme in 1951. At the time, Irish agriculture was in a depressed state. Soil fertility was depleted after eight years of shortages of fertiliser. Scarcity of imported feed, machinery and equipment had also left its mark. Breeding policies were antiquated and farmers had no voice on policy, production, or prices.
Visits to England and Holland in the late 1940s convinced John Mooney there was scope for progress on most Irish farms if knowledge and technology could be properly applied. Believing Irish farming needed its own voice, he proposed the rescue and development of the Journal. Founded in 1948 by Macra na Feirme, it was then a small publication with sales of less than 2,000 a fortnight. However, starved of cash it had effectively died. The title was purchased from the Fleet Printing Company in 1951 for £4,000. John Mooney decided the new publication would be more than simply another farming paper. It would contain accurate and up-to-date technical, financial and market information as well as general news and features. It was also to be a publication that would reflect a view of Irish agriculture as an important stakeholder in the Irish economy and in wider Irish life.
He persuaded Paddy O'Keeffe, then manager of Portrane Hospital Farm, to edit the new paper and the late Michael Dillon to take responsibility for advertising and coverage of markets.
As reader loyalty actively developed in response to the new editorial approach, the Journal quickly became a valuable commercial asset.
In 1961, when circulation had surpassed 50,000 copies a week, the Thompson Group, whose holdings included the Times, made a take-over offer. But John Mooney had always intended that the Journal would serve the interests of Irish farmers and personal gain was never on his agenda. To prevent the paper from being taken over he surrendered ownership and transferred 100 per cent of the shares into a charitable trust, with all profits to be devoted to farm and Journal development.
John Mooney chaired the new Agricultural Trust as an unpaid non-executive chairman until November 1993, when he handed over to Paddy O'Keeffe. Sales of the Irish Farmers Journal then were in excess of 70,000 copies a week and have remained so since.
The trust and the Journal went on to stimulate the formation of the NFA. They also strongly backed the formation and development of the Agricultural Research Institute. And one-third of all Journal profits go in the form of research grants and travel bursaries.
While the Irish Farmers Journal is John Mooney's lasting monument, his role as one of the most progressive farmers of his time should not be overlooked.
He was one of the first Irish farmers to identify the value of the Charolais breed for modern beef markets. In 1964, he was among those selected by the then minister for agriculture, Charles Haughey, to be the first private importers of the breed into the State. He had the satisfaction of seeing the breed he championed become the biggest beef breed in Ireland.
The President, Mrs McAleese, compared John Mooney to Horace Plunkett at the 50th anniversary conference of the Journal in Dublin Castle two years ago. Certainly he was proof that one man can make a difference.
John Mooney: born 1920; died, October 2000