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One of the great unwritten stories of Ireland’s economic development is that of the Irish meat industry.
Before the wave of multinational investment, the beef sector and the number of store cattle exported to Britain were central features of Irish economic policy and its trade negotiations.
The key company was The Irish Meat Packers Group (IMP), with enormous plants at Leixlip in Kildare and Grand Canal Street in Dublin. It was these two plants that were taken over by farmers, through Cork Marts, in the late 1960s. At the time of the takeover they were owned by a number of families, with two dominant characters, Jack Keogh and Frank Quinn. The other main meat companies at the time were Roscrea Meats in Tipperary, owned by the Crowley family, and the Clover Co-op Group, based in Waterford. But the IMP Group was by far the biggest and Jack Keogh was the dominant financial force behind the group. His son, Raymond, has written their story from his own perspective and his work joins a number of attempts to chronicle the history of the Irish beef industry and its place as one of the world’s key exporters. The late Michael Dillon, who contributed to RTÉ, The Irish Times as well as the Irish Farmers Journal was, as I understand, asked by CBF – the forerunner of Bord Bia – to research and produce a factual account of the industry, but it and subsequent proposed accounts never saw the light of day.
Raymond Keogh, who died last week, was best known to the general public as a keen horseman. He both hunted and had successful racehorses but he was, at heart, a cattle man and wrote a widely read book on the sector. He authored what should have been the definitive account of the Irish beef industry, but a few years ago when he asked me to read his manuscript, it was clear that some of his statements and views, while perhaps being justified, were derogatory in the extreme to some of the other participants in the sector. I met Raymond a number of times to go through the various points he raised and how they would want to be modulated to avoid potential legal action, but ultimately failing health prevented the project being successfully concluded. To Raymond Keogh’s family, we would like to offer our sincerest sympathy.
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