*Mark Dunphy and Francie Gorman.
LAOIS BEEF and sheep farmer, Francie Gorman has been elected as the 17th President of the Irish Farmers Association and had a Clare man in his corner as part of his campaign.
Connolly’s Mark Dunphy managed the PR and communications for Francie’s campaign since September, helping him in his success over Limerick dairy farmer Martin Stapleton. “It was a privilege to work alongside Francie in managing his PR and Communications in recent months,” Mark said.
He told The Clare Echo, “This election was fought in 26 counties and hundreds of branch areas across the country, so exposing Francie to as wide an audience as possible was key to winning the election. Local media played a key role in promoting his policies, while social media allowed him to engage directly with younger farmers in particular. Francie pulled votes from every corner of the country which is testament to his appeal as a candidate and underlines the importance of a proactive, consistent and broad communications plan in national elections like this”.
Francie secured 16,699 votes to Martin’s 13,210 and will take over in January from outgoing president Tim Cullinan when his four-year tenure concluded.
To be elected to the most influential position in Irish farming politics was a huge honour, Francie admitted. He said he would lead the organisation in a united fashion and stand up to unfair criticism of farming.
Counting began at 8am in the Castleknock Hotel in Dublin with count staff tackling more than 20,000 postal votes and thousands more cast through the IFA branch structure.
Both Francie and Martin took part in sixteen separate hustings during the campaign and spoke to thousands of IFA members when trying to win their support.
Four years ago, just under 23,000 IFA members cast ballots in the election, the turnout in 2023 was just shy of 30,000.
Alice Doyle, from Co Wexford, was elected deputy president, the first woman to achieve that office in IFA history.
He has been working in PR and communications for seventeen years, firstly with Dunphy PR and as of March 2020 with Dunphy Communications. He is the communications advisor of Clare TD, Michael McNamara (IND) and has held a similar role with former TD, Tony Killeen (FF), ex Senator Tony Mulcahy (FG) and successive Mayors of Clare and Limerick.
Although he left his role as communications officer with Clare County Council three years ago, the local authority and Galway County Council now utilise his services as a communications consultant. Dunphy’s client base includes the Cliffs of Moher Experience, Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, Michael Cusack Centre, the Diocese of Killaloe, Foynes Flying Boat Museum plus the Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau.
A former Head of News and Current Affairs with Clare FM, the Mary Immaculate College graduate also established Irish Weather Online and The Clare Herald, the latter of which was purchased by a company linked to the local radio station in 2016.
In June 2015, Mark was added to the backroom of the Clare senior hurlers managed by Davy Fitzgerald amid growing pressure on the media relations of the Sixmilebridge native. He remained in this role until the departure of joint managers Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor following the 2019 season.
