Today the streets of Dublin will once again slow to a crawl, and to a halt for several hours in parts of the south city centre, because of a protest that is unlikely to receive much sympathy from the capital's citizens. Farmers throughout the State want to emphasise that, in the words of the Irish Farmers' Association, they are not prepared "to accept Government and EU inaction on collapsing farm incomes, disastrous cattle, pig and sheep prices".
For many urban dwellers, the cries of the State's farmers have an all too familiar ring. They are perceived as the boys who have cried wolf too often. Their credibility has been eroded through years of increased income supports and ever louder appeals for more. But this time they have a truly sorry tale to tell. Over the past year, all farmers, especially those in the beef and sheep sectors, have seen their incomes reduced. In addition, they face a bleak future with EU supports and subsidies - worth an estimated £1.5 billion last year - likely to be revised downwards in the near future.
It is clearly a difficult time for a sector once seen as the most important in the economy. The figures speak for themselves: in 1960, around 390,000 people were employed in agriculture; last year the figure was 134,000 and that number is set to decline further. In the same period agriculture's share of total employment has fallen from 37 per cent to 10 per cent.
In 1997, the average farmer's income was £11,000 a year. However, this is a distortion of the real picture. While one-third of farmers, mainly those in the milk and cereals sectors, earn in excess of the average - and many considerably more than that - the remainder scrape by with the help of part-time jobs and other non-farm related income.
It is these farmers who are most feeling the pinch following a series of adverse developments. These include the BSE crisis, the collapse in the Russian beef export market, bad weather and dramatic falls in sheep prices. All of these have piled on the pressure, creating a mood of despair and despondency.
It is against this grim backdrop that today's protest takes place. There are no easy answers to farming's many problems, but farmers, as with any other group of workers or interests in this State, have every right to state their case in their capital city, contrary to the views expressed on Monday and repeated yesterday by the Dublin MEP, Ms Bernie Malone.
However, they must act responsibly. There is nothing to be gained from aggressive or disruptive behaviour. Bringing the streets of Dublin to a standstill and, in the process, damaging the lawful business of hundreds of city centre traders and their customers, will serve only to reinforce in the minds of many the belief that farmers care little for anybody but themselves.