The President, Mrs McAleese, will be the chief guest at the day-long celebrations on Thursday of the Irish Farmers Association's 50th birthday.
The organisation was founded on January 6th, 1955 in the Four Provinces Ballroom, Harcourt Street in Dublin. It used the name, the National Farmers Association and grew out of a series of meetings arranged by Macra na Feirme, the young farmers organisation, which had been seeking to promote farm unity and get a better deal for farmers.
The NFA kept its title until the 1970s when, under the presidency of the late T J Maher, it changed its name to the Irish Farmers Association to accommodate its expansion to cover all areas of agriculture.
Over 2,500 members and former leaders of the 80,000- strong organisation will be in the RDS in Dublin for the celebrations which will begin at 11 a.m. with a Ecumenical service. That will be followed by lunch at which President McAleese will be the principal guest.
The afternoon will feature a two-hour presentation of the organisation's 50-year history from the difficult days of the 1950s to the present time.
It will recall the great march to Dublin 11 years after its foundation which brought the organisation into conflict with the then Fianna Fáil Government which considered banning the IFA under the Emergency Powers Act in 1967 following a series of disruptive protests.
The Government imprisoned activists who refused to pay their rates or fines, arising out of the machinery protests when roads and railway lines were blocked.
Film from the last big farm protest, the "Tractorcade" in January 2003, which was led by Mr John Dillon, the current president, will be shown . It was one of the most successful protests undertaken by the organisation when tens of thousands of tractors from all parts of the country converged on Dublin in a protest over the prices farmers were receiving for their produce.
The event will conclude with a celebration concert by the Three Irish Tenors and it expected the event will finish at 8 p.m.