Macra na Feirme, the State's first farm organisation from which the others flowed, celebrated its 60th anniversary with a rally in Carlow that was attended by over 1,500 young people over the weekend.
At a dinner last night, 300 guests gathered to honour the founding fathers of the young farmers' organisation.
At the event were two of the original members, Dr Harry Spain from Kilmallock, Co Limerick, and Mr Séamus Doran from Mooncoin, Co Kilkenny.
Relatives of the man credited with setting up the organisation, the late Stephen Cullinan, attended the dinner with 20 past presidents of the organisation.
Macra, which now has only 8,000 members, a reflection of the falling numbers in the farming sector, has been a training ground for young people wishing to get involved in farming politics.
It has been jokingly dubbed the junior wing of the Irish Farmers' Association, with which it has very close links.
At the weekend, the current president of Macra, Mr Thomas Honner, used the occasion to launch a strong attack on the Competition Authority.
Mr Honner described the Competition Authority as a highly funded "cabal" preying on easy targets while being reluctant to tackle big business.
Mr Honner pointed out that the authority now has over 40 staff and received an allocation of over €5 million in the Government spending Estimates for 2005 announced last week, which was an increase of 28 per cent on last year.
"It is unbelievable that while farm-gate prices have been static for a decade and retail prices have been increasing, it is farmers that have been targeted by the authority," Mr Honner said.