Why farmers can no longer afford to look down on their labourers
For centuries labourers were the poor relations of agriculture, facing systemic inequality, but with most farmers now earning less than their hired workers, the traditional hierarchies of Rural Ireland have all but collapsed
‘Dr Curtis examines the persistent neglect of farm labourers’ rights throughout the 20th century’. Photo: Getty
‘A farm labourer who has constant employment, with a cottage and piece of land, has an enviable job in a sense, and it does not follow that his position is inferior to the man who is working a small farm,” said TP Gill, one of the foremost thinkers on Irish agriculture, at the founding of the Irish Free State.
His remarks were a stark warning to the government about what he called the “absurd” class distinction between farmers and labourers.
