This year sees Macra celebrating its 80th anniversary. This in any organisation is a milestone worthy of note. In the case of Macra, it is a considerable achievement.

Macra started as an organisation in 1944, when a group of rural science teachers, agricultural advisers, and farmers came together to discuss whether the existing young farmer groups could be joined together to form an organisation.

And so, Macra was born out of the ashes of war, by young men (initially), who were born in the darkest days of the Great Depression, who had a vision for a future of agriculture.

Some things change – for example, half of our members are now women – but some stay the same.

We still advocate strongly for a future in farming for young farmers.

‘Lack of fear’

Macra’s longevity is all the more remarkable by the fact that our organisation is run by young people, people with ideas, people who are not afraid to try something different.

This lack of fear has had several results, you are reading this article in one of Macra’s children (the Irish Farmers Journal), but the IFA and Foroige also grew out of Macra.

In more recent years, we have seen Land Mobility and Make the Moove.

As Macra is member-led, the ideas keep coming, and they thankfully will never stop. We have a saying, that the only bad idea is the one thats not expressed.

Collaboration

Macra is an organisation that works in collaboration with all.

We, in conjunction with the Agricultural Science Association, are cohosting an event at the Heritage Hotel in Co Laois on Thursday 7 March at 11am. This event is in support of Breast Cancer Ireland.

The event is to recognise the contribution of women to agriculture, while also marking International Women’s Day.

As a youth organisation, we are always on the lookout for new members, since as a youth organisation, we are the sum of our members.

Our members come from all walks of life, from all counties, and all have something in common: a connection to rural Ireland and its people.

If this is of interest to you, visit https://macra.ie/pages/membership. We have 11,000 like-minded people waiting to meet you.

Yours in Macra,

Elaine Houlihan

Macra national president

2023 – 2025