Factfile
Name: Tom Parlon Age: 44 Occupation: farmer Why in the news: has just been elected president of the Irish Farmers' Association
"Biffo" is not a term of endearment. For those who don't know, it refers to a big, ignorant fellow from Offaly. A less polite word, also beginning with the letter `f', is often substituted for `fellow'.
It was surprising then, during the Tom Parlon celebrations last Tuesday night in the luxurious surroundings of the new £8 million Tullamore Court Hotel, to hear a roar, "Come on the Biffos". At least 1,500 people had gathered there to celebrate an Offaly first. Tom Parlon had just been elected president of the 85,000-strong Irish Farmers' Association.
Presumably the man who got so carried away in the heady atmosphere of the Tullamore Court meant Tom Parlon is a big, intelligent, focused man from Offaly. The derogatory term could in no way apply to Parlon, who scored such a runaway victory over Michael Slattery that he apologised to him in his victory speech.
He took 70 per cent of the vote, winning majorities in 721 of the 925 branches, leaving a devastated Slattery, the outgoing deputy president, with a vote of only 204 branches. Parlon won a majority in every county except Mr Slattery's own South Tipperary and Sligo, which had a tied vote.
But who is this man who is set to become the public face of Irish farming for the next four years? Born at Coolderry, near Roscrea, Tom Parlon was the second son of a small farmer, Mick Parlon, who struggled hard to raise his family. Parlon was 13 when he saw his father join the famous march on Dublin in 1966. During that bitter struggle, when farmers were imprisoned for a series of acts of disobedience, Parlon became well versed in the history of agri-politics.
His father's involvement in the IFA meant that he became familiar with running the home farm place and gleaning valuable experience for the years ahead when he would move to set up his own.
He was educated in Roscrea CBS and the next logical step for a man who wanted to do farming, and nothing else, was a term in Gurteen Agricultural College. At that stage he was already involved in Macra na Feirme, the young farmers' organisation which is a training ground for later involvement in the IFA.
When he was 19, he won a Macra na Feirme scholarship to spend a year in New Zealand. Later he said this was one of the best years of his life which shaped his attitude to farming.
In New Zealand, farming is a business which operates without any state supports and still manages to survive because of the scale of operations, both in milk and sheep production.
When he arrived home, he had missed the opportunity to get into dairy farming because EU milk quotas had been established. Undaunted, he purchased a 30-acre farm from relatives and began to build up what is now a model enterprise, a 240-sow unit and nearly 700 ewes, on 100 acres of his own and 100 rented acres.
He is married with five children, aged between 11 and 18. His family was prominent in his campaign.
His first two years as deputy president were spent under Tom Clinton, who pips Parlon as the IFA's youngest president. He then served under Alan Gillis.
Four years ago he challenged for the top job but lost - although not heavily - to Galway's John Donnelly, who will remain president until early January.
"Whatever he does, he does well and with total commitment," said one of his neighbours during the week. "He takes no bullshit and no prisoners and that is what farmers want now."
One of the ironies is that Parlon is the man who is credited with having arranged the invasion of the lobby of the Department of Agriculture in Dublin with sheep not long ago. The protest was a PR disaster.
The unions in Agriculture House went to war and forced their bosses not to speak to the IFA for several weeks. The animal welfare lobby hammered the IFA for abusing animals. To this day, Parlon refuses to deny he was the man behind the protest, something which gave him an edge in this election over Michael Slattery.
But even Parlon himself is still trying to puzzle out why he got such a resounding victory. Those around him believe it was a signal from the poorer farmers, not involved in dairying, to become more militant.
The conditions during the election - a blockade of Irish beef in Britain, a new BSE crisis and falling prices both in beef and sheep - all contributed to making him the first non-dairy man to lead the IFA.
He will need all his humour and legendary energy - he works until everyone else drops, they say - to get him through the next four years, which will be crucial. Agriculture is being reformed again in the EU to meet the conditions of a new World Trade Agreement and farm incomes are falling for the first time in four years. Hard times are here again.
He will need all his breadth, intelligence, fortitude, finesse and organisational skills in order to pilot his way through the next four years.