Rally around Drogheda Six

THERE’S a new Big Six in the grain market, after the Irish Competition Authority’s successful court case against half a dozen farmers, following an investigation into the IFA’s alleged “cartel” activities.

The world grain trade is famous for being controlled by six companies Cargill, Continental, Louis Dreyfus, Bunge and Born, André, and Archer Daniels Midland/Töpfer.

But Fintan Conway, Ruaidhri Deasy, Colm McDonnell, Raymond O'Malley, George O'Brien, and Patrick Harrington look like the new kids on the block, after their conviction in a case stemming from an IFA protest by farmers at Drogheda Port 19 months ago, which prevented the unloading of a cargo of grain.