When Harry Ferguson Met Eamon de Valera

The Ford-Ferguson tractor that commenced production in 1939 as a result of the gentleman’s agreement between Harry Ferguson and Henry Ford would be the world’s first mass produced Ferguson System tractor. It had been expected as part of the special handshake deal for it to also be manufactured in the British Isles.  Despite Harry Ferguson and Henry Ford both trying their best to get the Ford-Ferguson produced in the British Isles it would sadly never happen.

Harry Ferguson after meeting with the Governments at Stormont who were in favour of tractor production.  Westminster and the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham, England who together ruled out Ford-Ferguson production. In one last throw of the dice Harry Ferguson also met with the Irish Free State Government in the hope of getting tractor production started at Cork. 

The meeting between Harry Ferguson and the Irish Free State Government was held at Dublin in May, 1940.  Harry Ferguson would demonstrate his Ferguson System by the aid of a clockwork model and a Ford-Ferguson tractor to Eamon de Valera and other members of the Free State Government in the hope they would agree to manufacture the tractor at the Ford Factory at Cork.  Henry Ford would also lobby the Irish Government to agree to do so. Manufacture of the tractor at Cork did not happen as the Free State Government had a policy of burn everything British but their coal and building a tractor to help the UK war effort was a no no.

This must have been a very difficult meeting for Harry Ferguson as a Unionist.  He would have known only too well that Irish Prime Minister Eamon de Valera and others in the Government were senior IRA godfathers responsible for mass murders and ethnic cleansing.  In particular Government Minister Frank Aiken, the butcher of Altnaveigh, who previously crossed the border into Northern Ireland and led a group of IRA terrorists who massacred 6 innocent Protestants and burnt down around a dozen buildings at Altnaveigh, outside Newry, Armagh on the 17th June, 1922.

By the end of May, 1940 Harry Ferguson had returned to the USA.  Spending the war ensuring the tractor continued to be built in large numbers at the Ford factory at Detroit Michigan.  This would be a very important role as in 1942 but for the constant lobbying of Harry Ferguson, Ford-Ferguson tractor production might have been stopped.  Thanks to that lobbying to the USA Government many thousands of Ford-Ferguson tractors did arrive in the British Isles with over 3,000 in Northern Ireland alone from 1939 to 1945.

These important meetings during May, 1940 did show Harry Ferguson’s resolve to get his tractor in production in the British Isles. That finally was achieved in 1946 with the introduction of the Ferguson TE 20 tractor that was built at Coventry, England.

Stevan Patterson, Castlederg, County Tyrone.