Edition Bobbett2. Speeches and statements by Elizabeth F. Bobbett

1943 Rathdrum, Election Meeting

Source: Wicklow People, 08.05.1943

Miss Elizabeth F. Bobbett said that when she first filled a gap in speaking at a meeting of the movement several years ago she little thought she would have been standing as a candidate in the general election. She asked the country to realise the amount of work which Mr. Patrick Cogan had put into the task of organisation of the National Agricultural Party, which she said must be coupled with Irish name – Clann na Talmhan. The people of Dublin did not understand why there should be a shortage of food. At Wicklow she had challenged Mr. Frank Aiken as to why the country people should have to pay 4d per stone more for flour than the people of the city, and he admitted he was not aware of it. He first suggested transport, which was ridiculous within a few miles of the mills; and then said it was profiteering, but it was the Government themselves who had fixed the prices. Now butter was being kept for the city people. There were shortages simply because the advice given by the IFF to the Government was rejected. She was never so disappointed as when she heard Mr. Erskine Childers, representing the Government, say in Rathdrum that the future was so black that the farmers must tighten their belts and work harder. Had they not been slaves long enough? There was not the slightest necessity for that attitude. With 51 candidates already selected they could count on a large number being returned to the Dail, and the farmers could rely on it that they would leave no stone unturned to put the agricultural Industry on its proper basis. Big business men were now very anxious for the farmers, they saw that when the farmer was down they were all down. It was terrible to see a hundred thousand people emigrate from this country looking for work, and judging by the arrangements for national health insurance between the governments of the two countries, it looked like a pre-arrangement. The National Agricultural Party had been criticised for aims put forward and the cost of the schemes saying that it would require another 30 millions expenditure, but that they also claimed that by increasing the productivity of land by another £2 per acre, they would enrich the state by 2½ million £ on one item alone. One of their aims was the reform of the monetary system and that she had first heard of from Mr. Thomas O’Donnell, now Judge O’Donnell. It was not the desire of the Irish farmer to produce enough for his own needs; that was not his mentality, which was Christian and national. They had so broadened their platform that they could include everyone who had the interests of Ireland at heart (applause).