There was a distinct air of embarrassment around the Killyhevlin Hotel yesterday when a cross-Border meeting of farm organisations went ahead without the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh.
This was to have been the Minister's first formal engagement across the Border since the massive Yes vote in the Belfast Agreement referendum, but it appeared that Mr Walsh had been advised to stay away due to the sensitivity of the situation during the Assembly elections.
However, Lord Dubs, the Minister responsible for Agriculture in the North, told the press he had not told Mr Walsh to stay away. No pressure had been put on his friend, Mr Walsh, Lord Dubs said, after he had delivered a paper on the benefits of co-operation.
"Mr Walsh may have felt a bit awkward in the middle of an election campaign. He is my friend, he made his own decision," Lord Dubs said.
He said Mr Walsh had not been advised by either the Northern Ireland Office or other Northern officials not to travel North. "We would not do that," he said, adding that there had always been the closest co-operation between agriculture officials, North and South.
He added that he would presume that Mr Walsh would have sought advice from the civil servants in the Irish Government before accepting the invitation.
While Mr Walsh was not commenting on what Lord Dubs had said, it is thought that the pressure to keep Mr Walsh out of the North came from the Department of Agriculture there.
On Sunday night it was confirmed that Mr Walsh had sought the advice of the Department of Foreign Affairs before travelling to the North and it had cleared his invitation.
The president of the Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers' Association, Mr Leslie Craig, expressed disappointment that Mr Walsh had not come to the conference.
He said farmers North and South needed the support of the governments to survive. His organisation was not being politically naive about what was happening.
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association president, Mr Frank Allen, said he, too, was disappointed at the non-attendance of the Minister.
"What is important is that this forum to discuss common problems and the impact of CAP reforms went ahead and that these discussions will continue," he said.
Mr Walsh's script was delivered to the 200 delegates from North and South by a senior official from the Department of Agriculture and Food, Mr John Fox.
Ironically, it dealt with the large degree of co-operation over the years between the farming communities, North and South, and the Departments of Agriculture in Belfast and Dublin.
Before dealing with the various EU schemes, Mr Walsh's script stated: "I would now like to take you through some aspects of this co-operation which does not have the same headline-grabbing appeal as co-operation in the political arena."