The first of the thousands of tractors which are expected to take to the roads this week as part of the week-long campaign for improved farm incomes arrived on the mainland from Beare Island yesterday evening.
The tractors were met by 69 more vehicles which last night converged on Bantry for the start of the protest drive to Dublin, due to begin this morning.
Seven tractors travelled to the mainland from the island and two of these will make the journey to the capital.
The vehicles assembled in Bantry will move out of the town at 10 a.m. today, led by the president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr John Dillon.
Tractors are due to leave Castlebar, Co Mayo, and Lifford, Co Donegal, later today to travel to Dublin for the culmination of the 300-vehicle protest on Friday afternoon. The political significance of the event cannot be underestimated, as it was on January 6th 1966 that the the famous Farmers' Rights march began in Bantry. Some of the farmers who participated in the 1966 march ended up in jail before the end of that year after the campaign turned to one of civil disobedience with the withholding of rates and the blocking of roads and railway lines.
The IFA has been making it clear that it wants no such confrontation this time. However, the association feels that its members must take to the streets to highlight what they see as the neglect of their sector.
Their primary target today will be the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, whose home town, Clonakilty, will be the focus of the first action by the protesters.
They plan to drive past his home at Emmet Square in the centre of Clonakilty at noon today to show their anger at what they perceive as his lack of action on their behalf.
However, Mr Walsh will not be at home. According to a Department of Agriculture spokesman, the Minister will be in Dublin attending a series of meetings.
There could be traffic delays in Cork city this afternoon when the "tractorcade" enters the city.With such a poor harvest behind them and reductions in all the product prices this year, a major turn-out by farmers along the route to Dublin is expected.
However, the IFA is attempting to play down reports that this is a make-or-break protest. Instead, it is describing the action as a shot across the bows of the Government to protest at the cuts and increased costs imposed on farmers in the 2003 Estimates and in the Budget.
Sources point to the fact that the IFA will limit the amount of disruption to traffic along the route, especially so on Friday in Dublin, when the vehicles will travel into the city after 11 a.m. and leave before 3 p.m.
In agri-political terms, it will be a testing week for the IFA president, who took over the job almost a year ago. Mr Dillon's election followed a bruising battle with three other rivals and caused a major rift inside the organisation. His support came mainly from the smaller farmers in the west and south and there was little backing for him along the east coast.