At a function in the Irish Farm Centre, the John Mooney award for outstanding contribution to Irish agriculture was made to Dan Browne of Dawn Meats.

John Mooney had bought the Irish Farmers Journal out of receivership in the early 1950s and Paddy O’Keeffe joined him as editor.

The combination saw the Irish Farmers Journal emerge as one of the strongest farming newspapers in Europe and in the mid-1960s, in response to an offer from Lord Thompson, the then owner of the London Times John Mooney decided to reject the substantial offer and donated the Irish Farmers Journal without any payment to himself to a charitable trust.

This broad structure continues to underpin the Irish Farmers Journal and The Agricultural Trust, where no dividends to shareholders are paid, nor directors’ fees.

All profits go into enhancing the content and work of the paper for the wellbeing of the broad farming and agri sector.

The Agricultural Trust decides who gets the John Mooney award, which is only granted in exceptional circumstances.

Other recipients of the award have included Denis Brosnan, who was the transformative figure in the development of the Kerry Group, and Brian Wickham, the driving force behind the development of Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), which has a unique structure to enhance the progress in animal breeding in Ireland.

At the award, Dan Browne was joined by his wife, Kay Browne, and members of the Browne and Queally families.

While Dan is best known as the joint founder of Dawn Meats, he has also served as chair of Teagasc and of Bord Bia and has been a powerful advocate for scientific and economic progress in Irish farming and agribusiness.

First role

An agricultural science graduate, one of his first roles was as a dairy husbandry scientist in the early days of The Agricultural Institute and its research facilities at Moorepark, outside Fermoy.

His work there, in conjunction with Michael Walshe and several colleagues including Pat Dillon, laid the foundation for the development at farm level of the modern, competitive Irish dairy industry.