Dan Browne, the former chair of Teagasc and Bord Bia, gave the oration at Michael Walshe’s memorial mass held at the weekend in Lisvernane Church in the Glen of Aherlow.

Fittingly, as Dan remarked, the gospel recounted the parable of the talents – Michael Walshe had been given five and had returned another five when the day of reckoning came.

Dan had been a colleague of Michael’s in Moorepark back in the late 1960s, before he developed one of most successful meat companies in Europe – Dawn Meats.

Michael’s wife Pat and her family had organised the event to take place on Michael’s home turf in Tipperary, six months after he died in Washington

But he acknowledged that Michael had been the driving force in giving the momentum to a research station that, as he said, is acknowledged now as the one of the best dairy research centres in the world.

Michael’s wife Pat and her family had organised the event to take place on Michael’s home turf in Tipperary, six months after he died in Washington and once COVID-19 restrictions had been sufficiently eased.

It was a remarkable tribute to a man who left Ireland to join the Washington-based World Bank in the early 1970s, that such a large crowd turned up to fill the rural church to the point of overflowing. Some were dairy farmers whose life and that of their families had been transformed by the work done at Moorepark, some ran dairy processing co-ops and many were former colleagues.

The present head of Moorepark, Pat Dillon, could justly claim to have expanded Michael’s vision into a modern reality

Others, such as the present director of Teagasc Frank O’Mara and his predecessor Gerry Boyle, joined long after he had left, but they were keenly aware of his legacy.

The present head of Moorepark, Pat Dillon, could justly claim to have expanded Michael’s vision into a modern reality. But there were others whom I hadn’t seen since well before the COVID-19 induced absences, including Tom O’Dwyer, who had started in Moorepark but rose to become director of animal products in the EU Commission and later Director General for education.

On retirement, he preceded Dan Browne as chair of Teagasc. Former minister in the Department of Agriculture, Ned O’Keeffe, gave a political dimension to the gathering.

But while the memories may have been of times past, the conversation was of up-to-date concerns – the distortions in the way methane emissions from livestock are calculated and how the development of an anaerobic digestion industry had been held back by a lack of sensible Government policy.

It was a fitting event to mark a major contribution of continuing national importance. To his wife Pat and family, our sympathy and thanks.