This event marked the end of Thomas Duffy’s term as Macra national president, and he handed the reins over to John Keane, who begins his two-year term.

We wish Thomas all the best for his future endeavours. He will continue to sit on the board of directors of Macra for a further two years.

During his term, no doubt a difficult and unprecedented term, Thomas had some great achievements. Some of these highlights include:

  • The research and formation of many policy documents regarding Macra’s position on intensive housing, transport, rural working, eco-schemes and the dairy industry.
  • Lobbying to secure €200,000 in funding supports for students in agricultural colleges.
  • The collation of Macra na Feirme’s largest pre-budget submission on both agricultural and rural youth issues and conducting Macra’s largest lobbying activity to date.

    • Vice presidents Sean Wallace (Munster), Ger Mahon (Leinster) and Fergus O’Rourke (northwest), also handed over the reins to Elaine Houlihan, Claire Gough and Luna Orofiamma respectively.

    We wish the new presidential team all the best for their tenure.

    The AGM also marked Colin Donnery, FRS, James Healy and Shane Quigley finishing their term on the national board of directors.

    We would like to thank them for their service and all they contributed during their time.

    Saturday saw Andrew Doyle, Amanda Monahan and Patrick Jordan being elected to the board. Andrew Doyle was elected chair of the board, in replace of John Keane. Claire Gough finished her two-year service as national secretary to the board, replaced by Caroline O’Keeffe and Bill Gleeson was elected national treasurer in replace of Andrew Doyle.

    The AGM looked back on some of the highlights of 2020, including:

  • 11,206 members, an increase of 9.86% on 2019
  • 761,249 minutes of Zoom meetings for member events, meetings and other online activities – that is the equivalent of almost 529 days of online activity.
  • 125 lobbying returns recorded.
  • Five new competitions were introduced.
  • New, engaging website developed.
  • Increase in social media following, including the collection of Facebook posts throughout the year reaching over 1m people.
  • 453 club officers were trained.
  • Macra Agricultural Skillnet increased the number of trainees and training days delivered, now reaching 1,900 trainees annually with over 6,400 training days completed.

    • Radio Drama final

    On Saturday 8 May, we were delighted to be joined by Seamus O’Rourke, who judged and announced the winners of the first ever Radio Drama competition.

    O’Rourke is an award-winning writer, director and actor from Co Leitrim.

    Clonakilty Macra were crowned winners of the Radio Drama Competition for their drama “A day in the life of a pencil.” In second place was Ballincollig Macra, followed by Killarney Macra in third place.

    Awards were also presented on the evening for best actor in a female and male role, which went to Mairead Twohig, Ballincollig, and Joseph O’Sullivan, Clonakilty Macra.

    Well done to all involved. All dramas can be found at macra.ie/podcast.