While the CAP was the big story of July 1962, a decade later in July 1972 there was another defining moment for Irish farmers with the opening of the Irish Farm Centre on 6 July 1972.

The official opening was performed by the Taoiseach of the day, Jack Lynch, who a few months later would sign the treaty admitting Ireland to the EEC.

The building was blessed by Archbishops Ryan and Buchannan, with music provided by the No 1 Army Band.

The opening was the culmination of efforts that began in mid-1960s and advanced with the acquisition of a site for £8,700 in 1967, just off the Naas Road which was on the outskirts of the city at the time.

Paddy O’Keeffe was the driving force behind the initiative and he chaired the Irish Farm Centre Co-op, which made the project happen. Members of the co-op included the Irish Farmers Journal, the Irish Horseman, Farm Apprenticeship Board, FBD Co-op and FBD Insurance, ICOS, Macra na Tuaithe and the IFA, plus a number of subsidiary associations.

The Farm Centre had as its first tenants AIB, Agricultural Services, Newspread Ltd, Irish Hereford Breed Society, Irish Farmers Club, Intermarketing Ltd and Larry Power Associates.

Later, a Co Op Travel agency was established in the Farm Centre to service the demand for travel to Europe for EEC meetings.

Purpose

Paddy O’Keeffe described the purpose of the building as “to provide modern office facilities at reasonable cost for organisations serving the farming industry”.

Prior to this, the different organisations operated from what were described as “converted dwelling houses scattered throughout Dublin city”.

Work on the building started in 1969 and the first offices were operational in the autumn of 1971. The original building, prior to the addition of the conference centre, extended to 50,000 square feet of office space and cost £600,000 to build.

To put this cost in context, the Irish Farmers Journal reported a 13.5cwt (685kg) Charolais steer sold for £210 (€247) in Bandon Mart in its 8 July 1972 edition – a similar animal is worth €3/kg or €2,000 per head today.

Looking at the documents that were produced for the opening, what was considered as state-of-the-art at that time would now be considered to be quaint.

Office block

The new office block included a “specially strengthened section of flooring capable of carrying a full computer service without any structural problems”.

At that time, computer capacity occupied rooms rather than desk space.

A state-of-the-art telephone system had 31 lines and a radio controlled bleeper system to contact people on the move.

As for location, the Naas Road was the gateway to the south, southwest and southeast while the main road west was only “three minutes away on a fast-ring road”.

This was something that was intended to be the equivalent of an M50 (built decades later) but was never quite achieved at the time.

The building was fully occupied at the time of its opening and it is testament to the confidence at the time, on the cusp of entry to the EEC, that plans were immediately put in place for an expansion.

A two-acre site was acquired beside the Farm Centre from the Dublin District Milk Board and this was later used as the site for the FBD building.

In the half century that elapsed since its opening the basic structure of the Farm Centre remains, with the addition of the extension and conference centre opened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2007.

This upgrade provided enhanced meeting capacity and the building is recognised as being central to Irish farming, similar to how Agriculture House in Kildare Street is the centre of agriculture for Government.