Cormac MacConnell: This farmer would welcome a subsidy

There is a fifth province of the Republic of Ireland, which is occupied only by farmers of all categories, and it is very different to all the others.

It is rarely written about in the media, except by wise observers like myself, and you accordingly never see its name in print.

That name is Bealbochtia, and it was earned cannily by the leaders of the province, because of their perennial adhesion to all the policies of the Beal Bocht... the Poor Mouth.