Tom Parlon has the reputation of being a tough man and it is said that he and his supporters from Wexford were behind an incident some years ago when sheep were thrown into the Department of Agriculture lobby in Dublin.
In fact, the IFA president was elected on the "direct action" ticket and had a runaway victory over his rival, Michael Slattery, a Tipperary dairy farmer.
How strange it was then to see Parlon on his knees last Tuesday on St Stephen's Green, pleading with the Wexford men to call off their impromptu sit-down that was blocking traffic in the city centre. The dialogue became very heated, with Parlon and the general secretary of IFA, Michael Berkery, eventually forced to give in to the will of the men of Wexford.
The incident served to illustrate vividly the hurt that farmers, especially small farmers, are feeling just now. They are literally turning on their own leadership because times are so hard.
A combination of international and national events have delivered Ireland's farmers their worst period in 25 years. Even the weather seems to have conspired against them.
During other crises, real and imagined over the years, some of the sectors survived intact. This year all the sectors, with the possible exception of milk production, have been taking a hammering.
The poorest sector, the 49,000 sheep producers, have been badly hit. The prices they were receiving for their sheep this time last year has been cut in half.
Hardest hit of all are the mountain sheep producers along the west coast, who are now attempting to off-load stock to meet the environmental requirements to be introduced by the EU soon.
The EU has ruled that there is too much overgrazing in the west and is demanding a drastic reduction of sheep be achieved on commonages and mountains.
This has meant that up to 250,000 unwanted ewes are being sold because farmers who fail to comply with the new stocking rates will not be able to collect premia, other grants, or payments for the Rural Environment Protection Scheme, (or REPS) under EU rules.
Michael Holmes, the chairman of IFA's national sheep committee, said lambs weighing 25 kg have been sold at Kenmare mart for £7 each. They would have made £30 last year.
He told of overhearing a man in a shop in Mayo asking a draper to give him a shirt on credit because he had no money and was unlikely to have any until the spring.
While Michael may have a political agenda of his own, a farmer's wife I have known for many years in the midlands, whose family has farmed over 100 acres for four generations, told me that she had to go to St Vincent de Paul to get money for the children's clothing so they could go back to school.
She told me that she was afraid to tell her husband because if he knew, his pride would be deeply wounded and he would harm either himself or her.
"We do not have enough money to keep going. He has no idea how much it costs to run a house with four children and a granny. Anyhow, all the money that comes in is ploughed back into the suckler cows and the sheep and paying bills," she said.
That farm family has been caught in a pincer movement. Sheep prices have dropped at the same time as beef hit its lowest price this decade, 80p per lb. Top producers can produce at 84 pence per lb.
The beef crisis has been caused by the Russian economic crisis, which has severely disrupted Ireland's largest market outside the EU, worth an estimated £100 million a year.
No beef has gone there in the last month from Ireland and Egypt, Ireland's next largest customer outside the EU, has spotted the opportunity and cut the price they pay. Factories dropped the prices by 10 pence per lb.
Farm leaders say the situation now is as bad as when the BSE crisis hit in 1996 and that many of the 100,000 farmers involved in beef production will not continue in the business.
Farmers, especially those in the west who are experiencing fodder difficulties, are being forced to sell their stock, and there is a current glut of unwanted beef on the market.
The pig industry is also undergoing a crisis caused by the financial problems in Asia, over production in Europe and a shortage of processing facilities here.
A fire at a Co Antrim pig processing unit in June has meant that pigs from the Republic, which traditionally had been slaughtered there, are clogging up the system in the Republic.
Prices all over Europe are low and the hope is that an EU system of short-term intervention, called Aids to Private Storage, will help to stabilise the situation.
The Department is slowly coming to grips with the main problem facing Irish exporters who want to send live cattle to the Continent - that the ferry services do not want to carry live animals.
This is because of pressure from the animal welfare lobby here and in the UK. Continental farmers want Irish stock but until recently have been unable to get them out of the country.
Earlier this week, the Minister for Agriculture amended the strict rules covering the transport of animals on smaller vessels, which are suitable for the European trade, and this should help to lift prices, especially for younger animals.
Finally, the farmer's perpetual enemy bad weather, has played its role in delivering a body blow to farmers, especially those on the west coast.
Many of the smaller farms on heavy soils face a serious fodder deficit. It is estimated that in the region of 20,000 farmers do not have enough winter feeding to carry them through to spring.
It is clear that we are not looking at an artificial crisis. The faces of the marchers on Tuesday in Dublin showed that.
Their anger indicated that times are not good and as they face into their winter of discontent, it is likely the city will see more of them.
As one man said as the march broke up: "We don't have much but we do have our pride and we will fight for that."