I note Michael Guinan of the ICMSA ,writing in your newspaper, ( Irish Examiner, June 15) argues that the new BGDP suckler scheme of the Dept of Agriculture is very onerous in demanding suckler farmers sign up for six years without any opt out option, if they want to take part.

The stand-off between farming organisations and the beef industry in recent weeks has been an interesting spectacle. Behind the headlines there are a number of uncomfortable truths and it will require much more than pickets to change them.

The notes of nostalgia were only too apparent over the past few days as the Lahinch traditionalists informed you that “the South of Ireland is nothing like it used to be”.

The emerging agri-food sector in Africa builds on principles of Irish co-ops, says Brian Hanratty

THE Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) plans to encourage the creation of new co-operatives among a range of initiatives over the coming year.

ANYONE lucky enough to have seen how powerful a force for good the simple idea of a community garden can be while on a visit to many of the world’s great and diverse cities — London, Havana, Seattle, Yokohama, Bogota or Copenhagen say — won’t be hard to convince that those projects can have hugely positive benefits on so many levels.

ONE of the key founders of the Irish co-operative movement was commemorated this week with ceremonies in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, where he is buried, and in Churchtown, north Cork, where he was born 150 years ago.

LISTS that aim to honour greatness are usually no more than a snapshot of the moment we live in.

IRELAND’S co-operative movement has honoured Sir Horace Plunkett, one of its founding fathers, with the publication of a book on his life, and his immense influence on the development of Ireland’s agricultural sector.

THE challenges that Ireland faced when Horace Plunkett helped establish the co-op movement are replicated today in the current unprecedented economic downturn.

THE ideals of those who founded the country’s co-ops are still relevant today as the dairy industry faces major challenges.

A FOUNDER of the Irish Co-operative Movement will be honoured at his birthplace in Churchtown, Co Cork, on Saturday.

NIALL GINTY (Letters, November 19) and Eoghan Harris (Sunday Independent, November 11) both commented on my letter to you (November 9).

DR Pat Muldowney’s letter (October 29) on RTÉ’s Hidden History programme (October 23) was valuable at the time and has become of even greater importance subsequently.

INVESTORS who hitched their star to One51 have been through some exciting times, thanks to the freewheeling style of its chief executive Philip Lynch.

AS a movement, farming co-ops have had an impact on the Irish economy way beyond what Horace Plunkett could have imagined when he founded the movement in the 19th century.