New Irish Farmers’ Party founded
Dublin, 26 May 1922 – Ireland has a new political party. The Farmers’ Party was formed following a meeting of the executive council of the Irish Farmers’ Union (IFU) in Dublin. At this meeting a resolution was endorsed advising county associations to put forward candidates with agricultural interests in the forthcoming election.
In light of the recent pact agreed between Collins and de Valera, the new party believes it has been relieved of the responsibility of taking a position on the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and their candidates will be focusing primarily on agricultural issues. It was recommended that the candidates elected should be ‘men with a national record’.
A meeting of the standing committee of the national executive of the IFU was subsequently held to draft a manifesto for the new party.
At a meeting of Co. Dublin farmers that also took place yesterday two candidates were selected for the election, one of whom was John Rooney of Ellistown, Ballyboughal. Mr Rooney is closely connected to the Gaelic League, Sinn Féin and the Volunteer movement and was one of the founders of the Lusk Pipers’ Band.
Professor Mary E. Daly, Royal Irish Academy, considers the impact of the First World War on Irish agriculture
The decision of the IFU to contest elections follows closely after the union appealed to the provisional government and the Dáil to restore law and order in the country.
Referring to the increase of industrial and agrarian unrest including the seizure of factories, the commandeering of milk and the destruction of farmers’ property, the IFU made it clear that it would not allow these Russian methods, as they described them, to continue in this country. One member of the executive, Patrick Belton, stated that the important thing was to have an election to fix responsibility and not have every Tom, Dick and Harry having a little army of his own.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
