Clann na Talmhan (, "Family/Children of the land"; formally known as the National Agricultural Party) was an Irish agrarian political party active between 1939 and 1965. Formation and growth Clann na Talmhan was founded on 29 June 1939 in Athenry, County Galway, in the wake of the breakdown of unification talks between the Irish Farmers Federation (IFF) and representatives of farmers in Connacht on the rate-paying issue. While the IFF supported full derating, the western view was that the largest farmers should not be relieved of all their rate-paying obligations. Were this to happen, the western opinion was that indirect taxation would inevitably increase, and small farmers and workers would find themselves appreciably worse-off. The party was led initially by Galway farmer Michael Donnellan. Its foundation represented a revival of agrarian politics in Ireland; from 1922 to 1933 a series of parties had represented farming interests, namely the Farmers' Party and the National Centre Party. However, these groups mostly attracted large farmers in the east. In contrast, Clann na Talmhan appealed explicitly to the more numerous small farmers of the west of Ireland. The party's objectives included the promotion of the interests of small farmers, government support for land reclamation, lowering of taxes on farmland, a more progressive system of land rates that would help small farmers, and more intensive afforestation. During the 1940s it began to adopt social democratic policies. It supported free secondary education and subsidised university education, as well as state investment in a public healthcare system. The party also had a distinct populist streak, pushing back against establishment politicians, bankers and the wealthy in Irish society. In 1942 at a rally in Dunmore, County Galway Michael Donnellan declared "You could take all the TDs, all the senators, all the ministers and members of the judiciary and all the other nice fellows and dump them off Clare Island into the broad Atlantic. Still, Ireland would succeed. But without the workers and producers, the country would starve in twenty-four hours". In contrast to the earlier Farmers' Party, Clann na Talmhan emphasised grass-roots campaigning and political agitation. It also developed an efficient electoral machine, largely owing to the advice and skills it gained from former members of Fianna Fáil. Although the party was hindered to a degree by wartime restrictions on public meetings and the press, it did have five years to prepare for its first election. In 1943,