Protesting farmers following in the footsteps of history

HISTORY seemed to shadow the farmers who set out on tractors from the shores of Bantry Bay yesterday to highlight their falling incomes.

Led by John Dillon, the president of the 85,000-member Irish Farmers Association, the tractorcade followed the route taken by Rickard Deasy, who headed a famous 217-mile farmer’s rights march from Bantry to Dublin in 1966. That march led to a celebrated 21-day sitdown protest on the steps of the then offices of the Department of Agriculture because Charles Haughey refused to meet with the farm leaders.

A similar outcome is unlikely this week as Minister Joe Walsh has promised to meet with farmers and urged them to negotiate rather than protest.