IFA’s self-appointed ‘Mr Clean’ heads up anti-treaty splinter group

JAMES REYNOLDS, who is spearheading a No to Lisbon campaign on behalf of a breakaway group of farmers, emerged in the 2005 IFA election as the organisation’s self-appointed “Mr Clean”.

Reynolds or other members of the Family Farm Protection Group (FFPG) popped up at meeting after meeting to put awkward questions to the candidates, in their declared quest “to restore trust, honour and integrity in the IFA”.

Reynolds wasn’t fully satisfied with candidates’ answers, and he wrote to the IFA’s national returning officer, lodging complaints against three senior officers, including two presidential candidates.