I see that Boherbue Co-op lost not one, not two, not three but four board members last week and that included the chair and his deputy.

Chair Paty Murphy, deputy chair Noel O’Mahony and board members Denis Drew and Mary O’Riordan have walked out over a dispute about accepting a new supplier – whose family are currently supplying neighbours Dairygold.

The four were in favour of accepting the milk supplier to Boherbue as a new entrant from 1 May and they had the backing of another three board members.

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However, chief executive Declan O’Keeffe and the five other board members were dead set against the idea. O’Keeffe warned that accepting the supplier risked starting world war three with their bigger neighbour.

The two co-ops co-operate on a number of areas with, for example, Dairygold supplying Boherbue with about three-quarters of its feed requirements.

The tricky question has been simmering since February when the farmer applied to supply Boherbue.

At the last board meeting on 19 April chair Paty Murphy finally lost patience and pushed for a vote. It went seven in favour and five against.

However, CEO O’Keeffe said the application still could not be accepted and this led to the four’s decision to vacate their seats.

ICOS storm trooper Sean Myers has now been called in to knock heads together and try find a solution. He was to chair a meeting of all board members on Wednesday of this week.

AGM

Meanwhile, the co-op’s annual general meeting is due to be held at the end of the month – although it’s unclear at this point who will chair it. Boherbue has 82 suppliers, a milk pool of about 25m litres and a board of 12 farmers.

The milk is collected by its own lorries and brought to the Rathmore chocolate crumb plant and from there the crumb goes to Dublin for making into chocolate bars.