I happened to be heading to Mitchelstown last Thursday and I wasn’t long off the motorway at junction 12 when I saw lines of cars parked along the side of the road.

Initially I thought there was a match on – it reminded me of the Racecourse Road in Thurles on Munster final day.

There were Land Cruisers and Pajeros lamped up everywhere as Dairygold farmers packed into the Firgrove Hotel for an important meeting. The hotel car park was full and when I asked a man directing traffic what all the fuss was about, he told me the overflow car park was full too.

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