This year, 2020, is the year of the sequel in Hollywood. Sequels though are generally never as good as the original. It is probably not the best comparison to make, but when I see tractors arriving in Dublin city centre for protests, they remind me of that adage about the sequel. In January 2003 when John Dillon was leader of the IFA, a nationwide convoy of tractors headed for Dublin for what was titled like a movie “The Tractorcade”.

It was carefully managed and commanded much TV, radio and print coverage, even before the hundreds of tractors arrived into the city. It was such a new tactic, such a big story that the RTÉ radio News on One decamped to Merrion Square for a rare outside broadcast.

I don’t remember what exactly the outcome was from the protest. There seldom is one. But as speeches wound up and the tractors made for home, it was deemed a victory for the farmers in terms of original thinking and getting the attention of both the powers that be and the general public. It was a reminder of their might and anger.

That may have been the sole aim regardless of any tangible delivery on price or regulations. But the latest farmer protests involving bringing tractors to the heart of Dublin are sadly a pale imitation.

Today, those working in shops, bars and restaurants around Dublin city centre have most likely never been near a farm

Back in the 1960s my father, who was the son of a farmer and running a bar in Dublin, remembers going down after work to show some solidarity with the farmers camped outside the Department of Agriculture. There were many like him.

Today, those working in shops, bars and restaurants around Dublin city centre have most likely never been near a farm, let alone have any family connections or appreciation of the issues.

And as Minister Michael Creed said before Christmas, any discommoding of workers or shoppers by tractors blocking streets will not win the support of those affected, not that fed-up farmers are going to pay any heed to what the minister says.

The media profile of farming has changed in a changing world

But it is fair to note that blocking the streets of Dublin in 2020 is simply outdated and counterproductive. The media profile of farming has changed in a changing world too. Media coverage is oxygen to protests and street campaigns.

But the day of a farmer protest making the headlines just because it is in Dublin is long gone. The focus has switched to climate action in this regard.

So you have got to ask; what is the point of bringing tractors into Dublin to highlight low beef prices at a time when there are as many people willing to block Merrion Square looking for Government action on transport fumes and methane emissions?

Clogging up Dublin is only going to serve as a poor remake of previous box office protests

That sounds really harsh at a time when hardworking decent farmers are at the end of their tether and deserve better treatment and respect by consumers, retailers and factories. Sadly the fracturing, infighting and disorganisation which has beset this campaign to highlight insulting prices has only added to a sense of being conquered and divided.

Until that is conceded and farmers are united again in taking on the other stakeholders around the table, sorry to say it, but clogging up Dublin is only going to serve as a poor remake of previous box office protests. It will only bemuse and anger motorists and pedestrians with big problems and income worries of their own to deal with in the modern world we live.

A fine line

How conflicting must it be for vegans or like-minded ideologists to champion the manufacture of food in energy-intensive laboratories using glorified chemistry sets? And how can you care about protecting wildlife when at the same time wishing to make farm animals extinct? Otherwise what would you do with them?