Tractorcade celebrates IFA golden jubilee

FARMERS took to the roads of Co Limerick yesterday with a tractorcade that created power, interest and colour, with little dollops of mock intrigue and earthy good humour thrown in.

"What are they protesting about now?" asked one onlooker as sixty tractors with flags flying from their cabs passed on the Limerick City to Patrickswell road.

He was assured it wasn't a protest at all but an IFA commemorative event, provoking the half-serious reply: "You mean to say they're celebrating a protest."

It was in fact part of Limerick's commemoration of the IFA's golden jubilee but it also evoked memories of the 2003 countrywide tractorcade that highlighted family farm incomes.

John Dillon, president of the 85,000 member Association, was delighted with the turnout. "Today's tractorcade is a different affair. We are celebrating fifty years of IFA."