The Dealer was intrigued to read a headline in the Irish Times this week, which proclaimed that farmers are more likely to take cocaine than any other part of the population.

I didn’t think farm incomes would stretch to doing a line of coke, but it would explain the wild disparity between the strong weanling prices and the current beef price.

The Times headline reminded me of a lively debate between former Macra presidents at its annual rally at the weekend.

Joe Healy, TJ Maher and Matt O’Keeffe took on the young whippersnappers James Healy, Michael Gowing and Alan Jagoe, who were arguing that “Romantic Ireland is dead and gone”.

Gowing recounted his own romantic proposal to his wife (and debate chair) Catherine, which apparently took place while pushing a ring feeder home from the local merchant.

Arguing that romance is dead, Gowing remarked that the phrase “doing a line” had a whole different meaning now than when Yeats wrote his poem. Indeed.