A meeting at Sullivan’s Hotel in Gort, Galway in Ireland was held on Wednesday (4 January) to discuss the decision by An Bord Pleanala to allow a major biogas plant to be located on the edge of the town. It was organised by the Gort Biogas Concern Group, which has voiced substantial opposition to the project.
Despite the chairman's calls at the start for those present to be respectful to others' views, cow excrement was thrown at Ciarán Cannon, Teachta Dála for the Galway East constituency. He was in attendance with junior minister Anne Rabbitte and another local TD Sean Canney, as well as local councillors.
The man who threw the excrement was the second to speak, reported Irish Examiner. He got up and railed against the failure of local TDs to stand up for the area “against the Government”.
As he concluded, he first approached Mr Cannon with a ziplock bag of cow manure and threw it at him and then approached Ms Rabbitte with another small bag of excrement and threw it over her.
“Nobody died but it wasn’t nice,” Cannon reportedly said. Anne Rabbitte is reported to have been shaken and upset by the incident.
Sources added that a small number of attendees applauded, with no one confronting the protestor - and no Garda officers were present.
The Irish Examiner said the man - who Mr Cannon described as “an idiot” - left the room for a number of minutes but returned and stood quite close to Ms Rabbitte for the remainder of the meeting. “It was intimidating for her,” Cannon told the .
Mr Cannon said it was a shame the incident overshadowed what otherwise was a very positive meeting, which raised €20,000 to fund a potential judicial review against the biogas plant.
“I fear that a very precious aspect of our Irish democracy, the easy access we have to our political representatives, is under threat and has been for some time,” he added.
The matter is now under Garda investigation.
Excrement thrown at Irish politicians in opposition to biogas plant
