Farmers honour veteran Joe Clarke
The many farming organisations with which former farm manager Joe Clarke has been associated came together last Friday night last to wish him a happy 90th.
A native of Ballina, Co Tipperary, Mr Clarke, who now lives at Castletroy, Limerick, was manager of the 1,000 acre Maxwell Estate, before taking over a similar appointment at the Carton Estate, Co Kildare, where he managed Lord Brocket’s herds of pedigree cattle and sheep.
He then moved to become manager of the Irish Cement Ltd’s Cooperhill Farm with a herd of 600 cattle and 800 sheep, at Clarina, Co Limerick. He retired from Cooperhill in 1979.
Throughout his career he exhibited livestock from the Cooperhill herd at agricultural shows from Balmoral to the RDS in Dublin and the Munster Agricultural Show at Cork. He also won hundreds of awards at regional and county shows. He was later to walk the same show grounds as a judge at county and local agricultural shows, where his expert and fair judgement is still sought and highly respected to this day.
Mr Clarke is a lifetime honorary member of IFA and of the Limerick Agricultural Show Society. He has served as chairman of the Limerick and Clare Friesian Breeders’ Club and as a member of the Limerick-based Bóthar, the third world aid organisation.
He has also represented Limerick and Clare Milk Producers and North Munster Cattle Breeders.
Mr Clarke continues to enjoy good health and an active life, maintaining a close relationship with the profession to which he has devoted his life.
