In some respects, the militant spirit of 1966 seemed apparent during the recent fuel protests and blockades. Under the presidency of Rickard Deasy, the National Farmer’s Association, established in 1955, declared war on the government in 1966, with the foot soldiers to match. When the NFA came to compile a history for its 60th birthday in 2015, it chose as the title of the resultant book, The Path to Power, and the events of October 1966 were instrumental in creating that path.

From a starting point in Bantry, Deasy led the NFA’s “west Cork Flying Column” on a 217-mile march to Dublin, with thousands joining in from other counties along the way. State files from 1966 record a private note from the minister for agriculture, Charles Haughey, to the minister for justice, Brian Lenihan; Haughey had information about the potential for significant protest and suggested that Deasy and his lieutenants had “a secret plan known only to them”.

Deasy, wearing a black beret to which was attached a papal medal, also carried with him a home-crafted blackthorn stick. The medal came from an audience with Pope John XXIII that Deasy was part of in 1962. The pope, long a promoter of social justice for rural communities, told the NFA delegates at that point “if I was not in this post, I would be among you”. The marchers also took inspiration........

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