In some respects, the militant spirit of 1966 seemed apparent during the recent fuel protests and blockades. Under the presidency of Rickard Deasy, the National Farmer’s Association, established in 1955, declared war on the government in 1966, with the foot soldiers to match. When the NFA came to compile a history for its 60th birthday in 2015, it chose as the title of the resultant book, The Path to Power, and the events of October 1966 were instrumental in creating that path.
From a starting point in Bantry, Deasy led the NFA’s “west Cork Flying Column” on a 217-mile march to Dublin, with thousands joining in from other counties along the way. State files from 1966 record a private note from the minister for agriculture, Charles Haughey, to the minister for justice, Brian Lenihan; Haughey had information about the potential for significant protest and suggested that Deasy and his lieutenants had “a secret plan known only to them”.
Deasy, wearing a black beret to which was attached a papal medal, also carried with him a home-crafted blackthorn stick. The medal came from an audience with Pope John XXIII that Deasy was part of in 1962. The pope, long a promoter of social justice for rural communities, told the NFA delegates at that point “if I was not in this post, I would be among you”. The marchers also took inspiration from international civil rights protests.
The plight they outlined was that in the region of 90,000 farmers, 40 per cent of the total in Ireland, had an income of about £5 a week and they wanted direct negotiations with government about the organisation of the agricultural sector and the marketing of its produce. Former Irish Farmers Journal editor Matt Dempsey, a chronicler of the history of the NFA, which evolved into the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), suggests there was little in 1966 to “indicate any sense of urgency on the part of the government”.
READ MORE
NFA marshals kept control and discipline, but Haughey refused to meet a deputation; a small group of nine kept up a vigil outside his office (the “Nine Frozen Arses” as some of their critics dubbed them), while taoiseach Seán Lemass told Deasy the militancy on display was incompatible with “normal, reasonable and progressive discussions” and that there would be no talks until the protests ended.
The government even looked at the possibility of declaring the NFA an “unlawful organisation.” Lemass eventually agreed to see them but insisted he could not make his government subservient to the NFA and little progress was made.
The protests continued into 1967 and spiralled, including road blockades, non-payment of fines and rates and imprisonments. Placards invoked the late 19th century era of the Land League, and in Cork city there was a “funeral of agriculture”. Suggestions from an interdepartmental action group that the Army become involved in the seizure of goods from rate defaulters were resisted by the Department of Defence.
In 1967, Jack Lynch, who had succeeded Lemass, told a Limerick priest “what really troubles me is that any section of the community, be it farmers or any other, should assume to itself the right to dictate terms to the government elected by the community as a whole. This breeds anarchy.”
But if there are echoes of ’66, there are also clear differences. The veterans of the 1960s campaigns came to see them as cementing bonds, ensuring coherence and purpose. As the IFA president in 1996, John Donnelly, characterised it, when commemorating the 30th anniversary of the campaign, it was “a milestone in propelling farmers to the forefront of national and economic life”, enabling the NFA to achieve an elevated status when it came to social partnership.
Today, the IFA’s historic power has been diluted. It walked itself into a cul de sac recently, in demanding the resignation of Larry Murrin as chair of Bord Bia due to his company, Dawn Farms, importing small amounts of Brazilian beef. Murrin remained in place, despite a sit-in at the Bord Bia offices.
In relation to the recent fuel protests, IFA press officer Seán Hennessy said, “we decided we would engage with Government first”. IFA president Francie Gorman warned “we must guard against our valid campaigns being used by people with other agendas”.
Those other agendas are manifold. The outcome of the NFA protests from 1966-7 was partly about it achieving formal negotiating rights as a representative body. Now, the preponderance of voices claiming leadership, the ubiquity of Tricolour flags, the hostility to climate change taxes, and gleefully expressed menace (“we’ve got the country by the balls”), alongside genuine hardship and grievance, suggest something more sharply edged.
During an era of social media, sinister orchestration, governmental turmoil and fragmented politics, and with a rush of opportunists declaring themselves “the gauge of the people”, a path to resolution looks doubtful.
