The death of Anthony Leddy, the former president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, earlier this month removed from Irish life one of the quiet champions of not only Irish farmers but also rural communities.
Born 74 years ago in Kinacranagh, Milltown, Belturbet, Co Cavan, Leddy devoted nearly all of his adult life to the betterment of rural communities.
Coming from a dairy farming background, he first became involved in agri-politics when he was sent by his father to represent him at local branch meeting of the ICMSA when he was only 16 years old.
Indicative of the times, he was one of the few people at the meeting with education which extended beyond primary school, and the young Leddy was asked to become secretary of the local branch because he had attended the vocational school in Belturbet.
Within a short time he was given the job of secretary of the ICMSA in Cavan, and that initial contact was to set him on the path which would eventually see him become president of the organisation from May 1978 to July 1981 at the age of 45.
That had been achieved by years of building up the organisation, especially in his beloved Cavan and in Monaghan and Donegal.
Quiet, but never unassuming, Leddy took over the president's job at a very difficult time in Irish agriculture and in farm politics.
Following the boom years which came as a result of entry into the EEC, farm incomes began to drop and, with inflation running at well over 20 per cent, his was a very pressurised job.
There had been an expectation that the ICMSA would amalgamate with the larger Irish Farmers' Association, and Leddy championed this idea.
With the help of the IFA, he was to fight off the first serious attempt by a modern government to tax Irish farmers when in 1979 George Colley introduced a 2 per cent levy on the sale of farm produce, which it was forced to drop some time later.
Running alongside his ICMSA commitments, Leddy also served on the EEC Social and Economic Committee, on the board of ACOT, the forerunner of Teagasc, the Irish Goods Council and Killeshandra Co-operative.
His resignation as ICMSA president in mid-1981 caused great dissent within the organisation and ended the possibility of the two main farm organisations combining.
While he remained active in farm politics and went on to become a vice-president of the Irish Farmers' Association, it will be as the first chairman of the Irish Leader rural development programmes that Anthony Leddy will be best remembered.
The Leader programmes were set up in the early 1990s following the MacSharry reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy.
He became the first chairman of the Cavan-Monaghan Leader programme which brought together local bodies to develop rural areas from the bottom upwards rather than waiting for funds from central government.
This was a very successful programme, and the development groups came together in 1997 to elect an umbrella body called Comhar Leader na hÉireann. Its first chairman was Leddy.
Because this was a pilot scheme for the EU, Leddy found himself travelling all over the Union to spread the message of rural development, a role he enjoyed to the full because of the ease with which he performed the task.
He had also a strong commitment to promoting good cross-Border relationships and worked to help build up strong development links with groups in Northern Ireland.
A lifelong member of the Irish Co-operative Movement, ICOS, its umbrella body, honoured him with the Plunkett Award in June 2001 for his services to the movement and his role in driving local development.
His deep commitment as farm leader and champion of rural Ireland was mirrored in the huge attendance at his funeral from St Patrick's Church, Milltown, to Drumlane Cemetery.
He is survived by his wife, Kathleen, sons, Anthony and John, and four daughters, Lisa-Ann, Sinead, Kathrina and Louise.
Anthony Leddy: born 1930; died January 11th, 2004