Commemoration in Bantry to Mark 60 Years Since the Farmers’ Rights Campaign
A commemoration is taking place in Bantry, Co Cork today to mark the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Farmers’ Rights Campaign by the NFA.
IFA President Francie Gorman will address the event in the square in the town, from where NFA President Rickard Deasy and 16 local farmers set out on October 7th, 1966 for Dublin.
They completed the 217-mile journey on foot and 30,000 farmers joined them along the way, before they converged on Dublin.
A three-week sit-in on the steps of Government Buildings by nine farmers lasted three weeks before the Government agreed to meet NFA and discuss their demands.
Four of those who marched from Bantry in 1966 – Michael Keohane, Jim Morris, Jackie Sullivan and Johnny O’Sullivan – will attend today’s commemoration.
Francie Gorman said that the Farmers’ Rights Campaign was a seminal event in the history of NFA/IFA.
“The right to negotiate, which we fought for 60 years ago, is as important today as it was in 1966. Those who answered the call are owed a huge debt of gratitude from farmers”.
He said the Campaign of 1966 was the single most important event in the history of NFA/IFA and was defined by the determination, commitment and perseverance of a group of people for the betterment of farm families.
The aim of the Campaign was to advance the Declaration of Farmers’ Rights. It was based on the style of Martin Luther King, the American civil rights campaigner, and drew inspiration from the famous March on Washington in 1963. The Declaration reminded the Government of the day of the Proclamation of 1916, in particular that the Republic guaranteed ‘equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens’.
It called on the Government to honour the promises of 1916 and proclaim and declare 11 basic rights of the rural and farm families of Ireland.
“This commemoration is about honouring those who marched in ’66. Their sacrifice and commitment to the cause must never be forgotten. Without them, we in NFA & IFA could not have achieved so much on behalf of farm families in the decades since,” he concluded.
