Edition Bobbett2. Speeches and statements by Elizabeth F. Bobbett
1938 Fethard, Meeting of the Irish Farmers’ Federation
Source: Nationalist and Leinster Times, 26.02.1938
Miss Elizabeth F. Bobbett said she was very pleased to come to South Tipperary, as she had spent some of the happiest days of her life in North Tipperary. Her father was a big farmer and she was an only daughter and remained on the farm because she was supposed to be so delicate that she would not live anywhere else. She was very keen on farming and she knew what she was talking about, and she hoped they would not get the impression that it was a cheeky thing for a woman to come down to talk to the farmers of South Tipperary. If she was successful in bringing the farmers of Ireland together it would be one of the happiest moments of her life. She had done what no man had the courage to do. They were all afraid perhaps that it might hurt their pride to say how they were affected by the rate question. She was one of the first victims over the rates in Wicklow.
Describing the beginnings of the organisation, she said there were only about twelve members in her parish at first. She held no political views at all, and it didn’t matter to her who was in power so long as she could make a living. Another section in Wicklow then began to talk about the rates and they were going to go to the County Council together and demand a reduction. As a result 87 farmers approached the County Council and took a determined united action and said they could not pay an increased rate. As a result, instead of increasing the rates, the County Council reduced them. The Irish Farmers‘ Federation was formed and fourteen counties were represented at the first meeting.
The Federation did not want to interfere with or dictate to the organisations or associations in each county. They just wanted them all to affiliate with the Federation exactly as the business people affiliated with the Federation of Irish Industries. President Eamon de Valera at the annual general meeting of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce expressed the hope that the vocational industries would organise and would be able to tell the Government at future times what they wanted. That was exactly why they wanted the farmers to unite in the Irish Farmers‘ Federation. They wanted all branches of agriculture to come together and to be able to tell the Government what their ills were and what they wanted done. Yet, if they looked at the daily papers they could see there was interference with the organisations and attempts made to keep the farmers from organising. Those who wanted to keep them from organising knew they were a very powerful community, but as long as they were kept divided they could not pull together. The land was big enough for them all and if they worked together it was capable of giving them all a living. But they were no such fools as to produce for nothing and at the same time pay taxes. Their stock was being sold at sacrifice prices until they had no stock left and when all their wealth was gone to the other side they would have derelict farms.
Dr. James Ryan had said in Wicklow that the only cure for the farmers was to work harder and produce more. How could they if they hadn’t got money to buy, for instance, seed wheat or a few cows (the ones they had were gone) or to buy sows. Were they going to let the Government turn them out on the road and let somebody else in on their farms and give them 30s 0d a week to work then as they had done in the Gaeltacht scheme? Or were they going to protect their homes? She thought the men of Tipperary were not so soft-hearted as to let anybody take their farms from them. The rates in Wicklow had increased by one hundred per cent since 1932. Wicklow was purely a store cattle county and the few people on the east side were sending milk to Dublin and getting ¼ per gallon for it. When the economic war started everyone got into cows in Wicklow with the result that Dublin was flooded with milk, as a result of which the price went down by threepence or fourpence per gallon and the farmers had to go on strike. This was the result of the livestock industry being debarred so that there was nothing being left to them only rabbits (laughter). These things showed them the necessity of organising. If young farmers went to England they were not fit for anything except work on the land, and that in England was considered the lowest form of employment. Englishmen would not take the kind of work that Irishmen did when they went to England, and that was the reason why Irishmen were so welcome there.
The last straw, said Miss Bobbett, was the publicity given recently to the Roscrea meat factory. There they were getting paid compensation for not working at all. They got £ 5’000 because they were not making any profits. She appealed to the farmers to get confidence again in themselves as farmers. No matter what political differences they had in the past, they should forget politics and pay no attention to the people who said the Farmers‘ Federation was political. It was not. There was also a report that it was a ranchers‘ organisation, but men with five and six acres of ground could not be called ranchers. The necessity for having all farming interests combined in one organisation was shown by the fact that organisations like the Beet Growers‘ Organisation were concerned with their own interests and never consulted anybody else with regard to the price. There was no hand of friendship to other farmers‘ organisations. All farmers could not produce beet, but the interests of the farmers who grew it and the interests of the farmers who did not should be common to all as a body.
In connection with the remission of the land annuities, Miss Bobbett said she had had a conversation the other day with some farmers form Clare, who suggested the farmers should demand a moratorium from the collection of land annuities for five years.
With regard to the question of fair representation for farmers on all national and legislative bodies, she said it was the farmers who should be telling the Minister for Agriculture and the Government what their grievances were and what remedies should be taken to improve them, and not having civil servants who would not know a horse from a cow telling the farmers what to do. She would ask the farmers of Tipperary, and of Ireland, to support the farmers of Wicklow in their fight for justice. In Wicklow they were driven to it. The Flying Squads were going round seizing their cattle. The Circuit Court Judge in Wicklow the week before last was presented with white gloves showing how crimeless and peaceful the County was, but she was afraid there was such a thing as robbery within the law, and the seizure of Mr. William Clune’s cattle last Monday was legalised robbery.
A voice: One man can get £15’000 a year and the other man can go without his cattle.
Wicklow had taken this matter up very strongly and they were not going to lie down under it. She hoped the farmers of Tipperary would back them up in any action they would take (applause).
The main objects of the Federation were to secure for farmers fixity of tenure; fair prices for farm produce based on the cost of production; full de-rating of all agricultural land; remission of all land annuities and arrears until agricultural prices became remunerative; readjustment of loan credit charges and loans on terms suitable to farmers to enable them to restock their farms and improve farm houses and farm buildings; fair representation for farmers on all national legislative and administrative bodies and the election by the organised farmers of the State of a majority of their members on all Boards dealing directly with agriculture.
Miss Bobbett, in speaking on organisation work, said it was the aim to have every county in touch with headquarters. They might at any time wish to call a strike, and she knew there were counties just waiting to do so. If they stopped eggs and milk, etc., going into the towns, they would soon get what they wanted. If the farmers were asked to down tools, they should down tools. In the organisation the farmers would also help each other in many ways.