Sir, - Not for the first time the IFA has demonstrated its ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Beef farmers have a credible case against the meat processors, but their chosen tactic, blockading meat plants, is ill conceived and arguably unnecessary.
If farmers are united, as Mr Tom Parlon has consistently asserted, they can achieve their objectives by simply organising a blanket boycott of offending plants. They have every right to choose not to sell their beasts to the meat processors for as long as they may wish. This would have the same economic effect as a blockade, would not involve them in unlawful interference with rights of access to those plants and, crucially, would not bring them into conflict with the courts.
Having been served an injunction it was stubborn, arrogant and ultimately rather foolish to so brazenly flout its terms. The consequences were obvious and inevitable. In a democratic society the rule of law must be upheld and the IFA has brought this trouble on itself. No amount of sympathy for its grievances can excuse its conduct. - Yours, etc.,
Anto O Broin, Merchamp, Seafield Road, Dublin 3 .