The competing demands on Ireland’s land base, which were laid bare in the recent Land Use Review published by Government, are not a new phenomenon, agricultural historian Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh has insisted.

Although farming, fuel and forestry have dominated Irish land usage since the foundation of the State, more recent imperatives, such as climate mitigation, biodiversity restoration and water quality protection, are increasingly challenging these accepted norms.

While ICOS chief executive TJ Flanagan maintained that Ireland would need three times its current land area to meet the various commitments made by successive governments, Ó Fathartaigh said this battle for access to land has been a recurring theme down the decades.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Throughout history, there has been pressure on Irish land. For instance, the urgency to make it more productive, and to literally make more of it, through reclamation, was a national preoccupation during the 20th century,” explained Ó Fathartaigh, who provided the historical perspective for the Land Use Review.

“Even a glance at the Dáil record reveals how consumed the Irish State was with pursuing land drainage,” he added.

“Therefore, while the dynamics of the current, competing pressures may be unprecedented, pressure on Irish land is not,” he said.

“We have vast experience in modifying our land use in response to the pressures of the age. Today’s pressures are merely the pressures of our age.”

From a historical standpoint, Ó Fathartaigh does not accept that the modern demand for “sustainability” should pose an insurmountable challenge for Irish farmers.

“Historically, Irish land use was characterised by the pursuit of sustainability. Farming families were, for the most part, able to generate livelihoods on their land and secure it for the next generation. This is the definition of sustainability,” he said.

“They achieved this through efficiencies and innovations undertaken by themselves, or in partnership with advisers, or in response to policy. This tends to be overlooked,” Ó Fathartaigh maintained.

“Sustainability in land use did mean something different historically, but not entirely. Therefore, pursuing sustainability has always characterised Irish land use.”

Ó Fathartaigh is confident that farmers are capable of reacting positively to policy changes that may be coming down the tracks due to climate pressures or the need to meet stricter environmental regulation.

He pointed out that farmers responded “vigorously” to the production policies of the 20th century because “they had the most personal of interests in making their use of land viable”.

“This collectively benefited the whole country,” Ó Fathartaigh said.

While Ó Fathartaigh accepted that the vast majority of farmers bought into the very specialised, commercial farming model in the wake of EEC membership in the early 1970s, he argued that a “capacity to respond [to change] remains”.

The current challenges in relation to climate change, biodiversity loss and water quality decline cannot be blamed solely on farmers and current farming practices, historian Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh claimed.

The shift from mixed, subsistence farming to intensive, specialised, production systems was a response to policies promoted by successive Irish governments and by the EEC and EU.

“These policies, instigated by the Irish Government but promoted particularly after EEC accession, were understandable and largely successful, but are now blamed chiefly for the current challenges around sustainability in land use,” he said. “Significantly, therefore, it was policies that contributed most to our contemporary challenges, not farming families, who were responding to those policies,” he stressed.

“Consequently, the legacy of history lies heavily on how policy should be formulated from here,” he maintained.

“To make informed decisions in policymaking of any kind, it is imperative to look at history,” Ó Fathartaigh said.

“New policies are never wholly so – they have typically been pursued previously in some way. Furthermore, they have either been largely successful or unsuccessful when implemented. People, including policymakers, can forget this or are unaware,” he explained.

“Seen in this light, history is of huge relevance to future policymaking.”

‘Commitment’ a persistent farming theme

Asked what has been the most persistent theme in Irish farmers’ relationship with land, Ó Fathartaigh replied “commitment”.

“This commitment has been understood in terms of coveting ownership, whether gloriously, as in the campaign against landlordism from the 1800s, or ingloriously, as in Bull McCabe-type stories,” Ó Fathartaigh explained.

“Yet there has been much more to it,” he added.

“Despite the dispossessions of a colonial millennium, Irish families remained conspicuously rooted on the lands of their clan-based ancestors.

“Is it surprising to see an O’Donnell playing for Donegal or a McCarthy for Cork?” Ó Fathartaigh asked.

“Even with new economic opportunities, farming families determined, saliently, to retain and, moreover, to continue farming their land. This is remarkable.”

Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh

Dr Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh is an agricultural, rural and environmental historian.

He is based at the University of Galway and is also International Research Fellow at the Archives of Rural History, Bern, Switzerland.

In addition, he chairs the Agricultural History Society of Ireland.