IFA celebrates 60-year rollercoaster journey

Ray Ryan looks at the proud history of an organisation which was set up to give farmers a voice in their own affairs.

Some 3,000 people attended the launch of what is now the Irish Farmers Association at the Four Provinces Hall in Dublin on January 6, 1955. The 60th anniversary of that event will be celebrated at the Convention Centre in the capital on the same date next week.

What happened between those dates is the story of farming and rural society in Ireland in the second half of the last century and the early years of the current one.