The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) celebrated its 50th birthday in the RDS in Dublin this month.
With over 2,500 members gathering to mark the foundation of the organisation fifty years ago in the Four Provinces Ballroom in Dublin's Harcourt Street, it was a proud celebration.
The President Mrs McAleese lead the celebrations, telling guests that all Irish people owed a great deal to the organisation. The IFA was at the heart of Irish political, civic and cultural life, she said.
The President described the current IFA leader John Dillon as "a terrible man", because he would not sit down to rest his injured legs when she asked him to; she then went on to describe her involvement on her relatives farm when she was younger.
Addressing the assembled members, Mr Dillon said that while the numbers in agriculture had declined over the years, farming remained the backbone of the rural economy, with Irish farm output and food processing worth €7billion last year, almost 20 percent of Ireland's net foreign earnings.
" The main challenge for this generation of IFA leaders and for the Government must be to ensure that a viable agriculture will continue to make an important contribution to the modern Irish economy and particularly the rural economy."
