Fifty years ago this week, the Irish Farmers Journal’s front page was given over to the farmers Rights March. The arresting images show farmers coming from every corner of the country to Dublin, to be heard by the Government and the general public. It was to become a watershed moment in our country’s history.

The key issue was the plight of small farms – of which there were over 100,000. Their weekly income was £5, or less. The flight from the land was seeing over 10,000 leaving farming every year. Some walked to highlight the need for alternative rural employment.

A meat marketing authority was being demanded, to ensure that the efforts of farmers in increasing cattle numbers would not see them punished by the marketplace – an echo of the post-superlevy dairy market. The current calls for transparency in the food chain are the modern equivalent – farmers believe that they are walled off from the prices consumers pay for their produce.

Listen to a discussion of the 1966 March with Pat O'Toole in our podcast below:

Listen to "Remembering the 1966 march for farmers' rights" on Spreaker.

In the following weeks, farmers would defy the Government when told to return to their homesteads. Hundreds were jailed, property was seized, but the collective will only became more resolute.

The 1966 census reported 177,452 farmers. It is a tribute to the efforts of the NFA members in 1966 that almost 125,000 farmers received BPS payments this year.

Unfortunately, many of them are part-time, and surviving on small incomes – the Teagasc National Farm Survey discounts over 40,000 farmers as not being of sufficient economic impact.

Some issues remain – the front page of the previous week’s paper stressed the growing gap between UK and Irish beef prices.

Average UK cattle prices were 168/- (shillings) per cwt (about 17p/kg in today’s money).

Irish prices were 27% back at 128/-/cwt.

And there was no currency fluctuation to blame then – the Irish pound was tied to sterling.

It’s a much more complicated world now, with global markets, stringent regulation and soaring costs. Farmers’ rights are in need of defending now as much as ever.