Edition Bobbett2. Speeches and statements by Elizabeth F. Bobbett

1939 Edenderry, Meeting of the Irish Farmers’ Federation

Source: Leinster Leader, 06.05.1939

Miss Bobbett, who was given a very enthusiastic reception, first read out the general objects of the Association, and said that it was registered as a Trade Union in 1937. They welcomed people of all political views – it did not concern them what politics they had – and they wanted the confidence of farmers and also of farm labourers. They wanted the latter especially to come in and fight for a living wage.

One of the chief aims was to get in direct contact with the Minister for Agriculture and to have their association acting in an advisory and consultative capacity.

Another aim was unity – in former organisations there was always dissension, and the Government could always point to this and hold it over them. They would have to be united; the whole of the 26 counties, and perhaps, too, in the near future, the farmers of the North of Ireland (cheers).

Their organisation wanted fixture of tenure and complete de-rating of all agricultural land and buildings. The farmers of Scotland, and of all the countries with which we had to compete in the international market, had got these things, why shouldn't we? (Applause). The farmers had been tied up, with laws and regulations – they had been made to build cow-houses, and now it was true to say that a lot of cows were better housed than the farmers themselves. It was absolutely impossible to compete in an international market now, for when you came home after selling against the other countries you had to buy your goods in a protected market and pay 33 per cent duty on everything.

The speaker instanced the case of a farmer in County Wicklow who, in 1902, paid rates of £13 odd, and in 1912 paid rates of about £15. That man was getting about £17 10s for stall fed cattle then. Now in 1938 his rates were £47, and his wages to his men, instead of being 5s a week, were 15s. The prices for his cattle were no better – how could he be expected to live?

A Voice: On air, I suppose.

The demonstration had been given a great notice in the Press, but they did not want notice; they wanted justice and they would get it through the Farmers' Federation (hear, hear).

She appealed to the wives and daughters of the farmers to come out in the [[?]] and fight for their men, and said that any of these women worked harder than the wives and daughters of county council workers. Many farmers hat their relations working in the fields all day; did a county council worker ever ask his wive or daughter to come out and help him clean the roads? The farmer should be paid a sufficient wage to enable him to pay his wife and children (applause).

How could they expect boys and girls to stay on the land if they were to be treated as absolute slaves? Naturally they would go where they could earn a decent wage, but if this migration continued it would be ruinous to rural and family life in Ireland. At a recent meeting, she (the speaker) had been introduced as the lady that rode the white horse through Dublin. Well, she had often rode a white horse before, and this was the first time that any notice had been taken of her in the Press or in such a manner. It was not because of her white horse that notice was taken of her to-day, but because of the five thousand farmers at her back. She asked them to be enthusiastic about it and join with a heart and a half; join up and work for the organisation, and if necessary strike for it. If the farmers were asked to strike for a week or for a month, they should be ready to do it. (Cheers and a Voice: "Down tools.")

"Thirty years ago," continued the speaker, "I heard an old farmer say that if the farmers stood down and did nothing, and sold nothing, only grow what they want for themselves, it would not be long before our grievances would be heard. It is not hard. We have held up the Dublin market, in spite of the people who said it was impossible. That one day's hold-up created a scarcity of mutton in Wicklow, and other commodities were affected in various places.

When the present Government came into power it was elected by the State, and surely it was the duty of the people of the State to share the burden imposed by the economic war! But no, all the weight was thrown on the farmers' shoulders, yet despite this the banks did not reduce their interest; nor did the shop-keepers give their flour for half-price or the insurance companies reduced their premiums. These people made their profits all the time, and the farmer footed the bill. The Minister for Industry and Commerce had said that other people besides the agricultural section of the community should be prepared to make sacrifices, if the farming industry was to survive. The people who did not bear their just share of the economic war should be made pay now, said Miss Bobbett, amid applause.

Continuing, she said that £600'000 had been voted for tourist traffic in Ireland, but all the farmers could get was £40'000 for a bit of "rotational manure." It was not their business now to bother where the money came from; did other people bother when they got their grants from the Government?

Miss Bobbett said she wished to reply to a statement in the "Irish Press" of a few days ago, in which the Minister for Agriculture had said that out of 24 farmers in County Wexford who had received seeds from the County Council, only one had paid the loan. That was not right. The present scheme of the Wexford County Council gave farmers a maximum grant of £12 worth of seeds. For this he had to sign a paper, asking him how much he had sown last year; how much he intended sowing this year, and about twenty other questions. He would have to have other questions. He would have to have two guarantors for two-thirds of the money, and these guarantors would have to have a clear receipt for their rates up to 1938. Well, said the speaker amid applause, the farmers of Wexford are prouder than farmers of other parts of the country, and they would not go begging to their neighbours for £9. This scheme was absolutely useless, and she hoped that the Press would publish this, as it was only fair to the farmers to give their side of the story.

She had attended a meeting in Bridgetown, County Clare, recently, and out of the 131 people who enrolled there were six agricultural labourers. That was what they wanted. Concluding, she said that she would ask the farmers present not to go away without enrolling as members (applause).