"DID YIZ leave the tractors behind you this time?" a middle-aged Dublin woman on Dame Street quizzed a bunch of midland farmers as they marched on Dublin Castle yesterday.
"Naw, we can't afford diesel now," replied one of the group which had travelled to join thousands more to protest over the possible outcome of world trade talks which could severely damage their livelihoods.
The lady was referring to the last big farm protest in Dublin, the "Tractorcade" in January 2003 when thousands of tractors converged on the city to protest over falling prices.
Yesterday's protest was bigger but not quite as noisy as the "Tractorcade" and organised with military like precision by the main farming organisations led by the IFA.
For instance, there was food laid on for the troops on Molesworth Street where the protest began after noon.
Some of the estimated 10,000 who came had travelled long distances. South Limerick farmer John Maher, for instance, had got up at 5am to join his colleagues outside the Dáil.
But the numbers were reinforced by not only support from rival organisations like the ICMSA, but there were beef barons, some factory workers, agricultural consultants and even Teagasc farm advisers who had joined the throng.
They were all secure in the knowledge that there was nothing happening at home, because over 1,000 agri-related businesses closed their doors in a symbolic shut-down yesterday in support of the farmers. With all the co-operative marts, machinery companies, grain companies, insurance companies closed down and some very prominent faces from the meat processing sector on the march, there was not much could be done at home anyway.
And, of course, where you have any kind of decent gathering, you are bound to find politicians of every hue and shade.
Born-again Beverely Flynn was to be seen glad handing her way through the throng, as was that other in-and-out soldier of destiny, Ned O'Keeffe.
And somewhere between the bottom of Grafton Street and Dublin Castle, after the speeches had been delivered, Marian Harkin, the Connacht/Ulster MEP found her way into the front ranks of the marchers.
Fine Gael MEP Maireád McGuinness had already made her rounds at that stage, working her way through the 850 IFA branch banners which had been carried by at least one IFA member to the city for the event.
It was almost like old times with the faces of some of the former presidents of the IFA who had made history in the forefront.
There was John Dillon, the man who led the "Tractorcade", John Donnelly, who had also pounded the streets of Dublin and Alan Gillis, the first man in agriculture to realise what the World Trade Organisation might mean and that was back in 1990.
However, there was no sign at all of Tom Parlon. He, I was told, was busily building concrete sheds all over rural Ireland, sucking diesel.