Hopefuls sow seeds in bid for top posts
The hustings came to the National Ploughing Championships in earnest yesterday as the candidates in the IFA elections canvassed for support.
It marked the effective start of a gruelling campaign to elect a successor to John Bryan as president of the 92,000-strong member association.
In contention for the presidency are deputy president Eddie Downey from Meath and Jer Bergin, Laois, the South Leinster vice president.
Each man has launched a high-profile poster blitz in their respective bids to woo the electorate in the 947 branches countrywide.
There are also elections to other IFA posts. Vying for the position of deputy president are national treasurer JJ Kavanagh, from Wexford, and Tim O’Leary, Cork Central.
There are three candidates for Munster vice president — Kevin Kiersey, National Dairy Committee chairman from Waterford, James McCarthy, Kerry, and Eddie Scanlan, Limerick.
National Sheep Committee chairman James Murphy, Kilkenny, and Offaly chairman Joe Parlon are the candidates for South Leinster vice president.
Bert Stewart, Monaghan, is the sole candidate to date for the Ulster-North Leinster vice presidency and Tom Turley, Galway, is the lone contender for the Connacht vice presidency.
Canvassing was intense as farmers mingled and exchanged views about the future direction of their industry.
But that was only a warm-up for the countrywide campaigns the candidates will undertake over the coming weeks.
Debates at county executives are likely to take place in the second half of October and early November.
Voting in the branches will run from mid-November to mid-December and the count will take place in Dublin on Dec 17.
It will be an exhaustive process for all the campaign teams who were given plenty of advice yesterday.
One candidate was urged to politely decline hospitable offers of tea or even a drop of something stronger in any farm house that they might visit.
“It is a sure sign the vote has been promised to another,” a man of wisdom told the candidates.
It was hard to know what a delegation of pigmeat buyers from China who visited the championships as guests of Bord Bia made of it all.
They are in Ireland for Bord Bia’s inaugural Global Sustainability Conference, which takes place today at the Convention Centre, Dublin, where more than 800 delegates are expected to attend.
Back at the ploughing, people met sporting stars, television personalities, ministers and rural leaders.
Approximately 90,000 people again attended the event — a record for a Wednesday turnout.
Labour Party Senator John Whelan said the success was testament once again to the supreme managerial talents of National Ploughing Association managing director Anna May McHugh and her dedicated team.
“It is also a reflection on the logistical advantages and convenient access which is a key attribute of the Laois location,” he said.
Mr Whelan, noting that the Electric Picnic was held earlier this month in nearby Stradbally, said Laois should now build on its status as hub for large-scale events and exhibitions.
“Hopefully, the National Ploughing Championships will be staged in the county again next year,” he said.
What was striking about yesterday was the polite interaction between members of the public, many with genuine worries and grievances which they outlined without inhibition, and their local and national politicians who listened with courtesy.
Indeed, there were instances of politicians in the middle of little huddles of people, just as Jimmy Barry Murphy and Davy Fitzgerald might do when they give final instructions to their Cork and Clare players ahead of Saturday’s replay of the All Ireland hurling final at Croke Park.
Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney arrived for a 9pm press briefing wearing a blue-coloured rosette tinged with saffron lettering on one of his lapels.
Surely the towering Cork man had not defected to the Clare hurlers? Closer inspection revealed it was merely a National Ploughing Association guest badge.
In a test of stamina that would even challenge world walking champion, Rob Heffernan, the minister visited nearly 50 stands during the day.
The first person to greet him outside the IFA stand was an old friend — Lily Crowley, from Carrigooon, Mallow, Co Cork, whose husband Denis gave the future minister an early introduction to the practicalities of tillage farming.
Having graduated in agricultural science, Simon Coveney spent a year working on the Crowleys’ farm and the friendship with the family has continued to this day.
