Voters weigh up historic moment

IT was a painstaking exercise in democracy that would have done justice to any electoral system.

More than 4,000 farmers with shares in Glanbia Co-Operative Society Ltd travelled to the Teagasc Kildalton College in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, to vote on a €343 million deal to buy back the Irish business of the group.

A full 1,000 of them came in a fleet of buses and the others in their own cars and four-wheel drives from other parts of the country.

Bearing their admission cards and photographic identification, they waited in line to be registered.

That process alone took over two hours to complete.

It was followed in the massive marquee by a question and answer session from the floor to the top table for three hours.

Voting took another hour to complete and it was a further hour before the counting of the ballots was finished.

“Shaping Our Future Together” read one sign, as the farmers took a momentous decision that could have a significant impact on the structural make-up of the Irish agri sector in the years ahead.

The meeting itself was strictly private in accordance with the rules governing co-operative societies. But the word was of strong and passionate speeches.

An indication that the proposal might be rejected came from the clapometer the followed the various speakers in the marquee.

It was a busy day for the 400 Glanbia staff, wearing orange-coloured bibs on traffic, parking, catering and other duties.

Golf club cars were available to transport less agile shareholders from the carparks to the marquee. As the debate ebbed and flowed in the 6,000-seater tent erected in the grounds, the media waited patiently.

There was a sense of St Peter’s Square in Rome when pilgrims watch for signs of white smoke from the chimney on the Sistine Chapel at the election of a pope.

When the news came just before Angelus time that the proposals had failed, most of the farmers had left for home to milk their cows, avail of the remainder of the dry evening for spraying and ponder on the decision they had taken.