Ciarán Cannon Hits out after 'Bag of Sh*t' Thrown at Him and Anne Rabbitte

January 10, 2023

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by Daniel McConnell (Irish Examiner) Ciarán Cannon along with junior minister Anne Rabbitte had a 'bag of sh*t' thrown at both of them at a public meeting in Galway.

'The incident last night is indicative of an increasing level of toxicity and aggression directed towards politicians of all parties'

“Nobody died but it wasn’t nice,” is how Fine Gael TD Ciarán Cannon described the incident on Wednesday night in Gort, Co Galway.

Mr Cannon, along with junior minister Anne Rabbitte, had a “bag of sh*t” thrown at both of them at a public meeting in the town.

The matter is now under Garda investigation.

The meeting at Sullivan’s Hotel in Gort, which was thronged, was called to discuss the decision by An Bord Pleanala to allow a major biogas plant to be located on the edge of the town.

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The public meeting was organised by the Gort Biogas Concern Group, which has voiced substantial opposition to the project.

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The man who threw the excrement was the second to speak. 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.

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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.

However, he said he was concerned the accessibility to politicians in Ireland will have to be limited if such incidents continue.

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Ms Rabbitte said the incident left her fearing for her safety. READ MORE

Gardaí investigating after Anne Rabbitte and colleague attacked with 'bag of sh*t' -- Ms Rabbitte and Ciarán Cannon were subjected to the attack on Wednesday evening. (Irish Examiner)

Biogas plant planning permission branded ‘absolute disaster’ (The Clare Champion)

Help save South Galway from a catastrophic development; The Planned Biogas Plant in Gort – An explainer (Gort Biogas Concerns)

Excrement thrown at Irish politicians in opposition to biogas plant (Bioenergy Insight)

MEP MacManus Raises Gort Biogas Plant In European Parliament (Sinn Féin)

Excerpt from Gort Biogas Concerns: After almost a 2 year wait,on the 22nd of December, An Bord Pleanala decided to overturn Galway County Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for a large-scale Biogas plant on the immediate outskirts of Gort Co. Galway. This decision will have brutal impacts on Gort town and the local environment as the Biogas plant is set to go ahead.

This industrial biogas plant (think of it as a massive stomach) , will be developed on a 25 acre site. The town of Kinvara could fit inside it. It will have the following process

Take delivery of 90,000 tonnes/year of ‘feedstock’ such as slurry, food compost, fish waste and silage
Digest this in 8 massive digester tanks and produce Methane, Carbon Dioxide and other chemicals such as Hydrogen Sulphide, Nitrous Oxide , Ammonia etc
This process will produce offensive odours within the process
Store and export 150,000 tonnes/annum of the digested slurry or digestate
Spread this on land in vicinity of the plant – This equates to spreading almost 2 Olympic- sized swimming pools of smelly slurry-digestate on land in South Galway/North Clare every week.

Anerobic digesters are a key part of our Climate Action Plan but there are some key issues that we have in this location.

The location is completely wrong for an industrial sized biogas plant, in terms of it’s access to feedstock, size and proximity to local population, local amentities and its proximity to Coole Park nature reserve and SACS, These should be located to feedstock sources.
There are key health concerns for locating this facility so close to a town (100m to nearest residence, 50m from Gort River Walk, 400m to nearest housing estate and 900m from Gort Town Centre/Square). Biogas plants produce Nitrous Oxide, Ammonia, Sulpher Dioxide many of which are harmful to human health. Biogas plants can explode.
There are traffic, and health and safety concerns as this facility will bring 6,000-7000 HGVs into Gort per year. This may cause havoc on the towns roads, increase risk of traffic accidents and bring more fumes and noise into the town
This will make town and environs smelly – from escaped odours of the plant to the spreading of 2 olympic-sized swimming pools of smelly digestate per week. This will have the most pervasive and impactful effect on the town e.g.
The town and and local economy will be severely impacted – tourism will plummet – accommodation, restaurants, services. House values will plummet. People will not want to live or locate their business in town. The culture of the town will be forever changed. Welcome to ‘smelly Gort’ and
The local environment will be at risk. An explosion or spill into the Gort River (10m from plant) will reach Kitartan and Coole Park and would have catastrophic impacts. Digestate on land will increase levels of pollution in South Galway
The plant could suck Gort Town dry of water. Our fragile water system couldn’t take heavy water demands from this type of plant. The town supply is at near critical level and the infrastructure simply isn’t there to meet the additional demand of such a facility.
There are national rural concerns here also because these plants will try and locate themselves close to infrastructure and they won’t take local towns concerns into consideration.

The community around South Galway is devastated that after all the work done and Galway County Council’s refusal that this is being allowed to go ahead and deal a horrendous blow to the future of Gort and South Galway. The general consensus of the South Galway community is that if this development goes ahead it will absolutely ruin the town and surrounding environs and have impacts on peoples lifestyles, health and businesses around South Galway (especially the tourism industry) READ MORE

Excerpt from Sinn Féin: Speaking after the debate, MEP (Chris) MacManus said:
“A number of constituents in Gort and my Sinn Féin colleague in Galway East, Louis O’Hara, have raised concerns with me regarding the proposed biogas plant on the outskirts of the town. The local community have been fundraising for a judicial review of An Bord Pleanála’s decision to grant planning permission for the plant and I want to commend them for their efforts to halt this totally unsuitable development.”

“There is a long list of legitimate concerns if this proposed development goes ahead. The plant would be located only a few hundred metres from the town itself and very close to nearby homes. This raises health concerns about harmful emissions from the plant and the potential for pungent odours from the plant to be present in the town. It could have a devastating impact on the daily lives of people in the local community and poses a threat to the local environment given that the plant is located right beside the Gort River and nearby Special Areas of Conservation.”

“It is clear that there was no engagement with the local community before this development was proposed. Biogas has an important role to play in providing sustainable energy but it is vital that these plants are developed in appropriate locations and following consultation with local communities.”

“Therefore I tabled an amendment to a Resolution in the European Parliament which called on the Commission to boost the deployment of small and medium scale biogas plants. My amendment stated that any such deployment must be done with the consultation of our communities and I used the example of the proposed plant in Gort during the debate on the resolution in the Parliament. Unfortunately this amendment was defeated with some Fine Gael MEPs voting against it.”

“I have also written to the Commission outlining the concerns around this proposed development and asking them to investigate its consistency with EU environmental directives given the significant environmental concerns around this development.”

“This development should not go ahead and I am hopeful that there will be a positive outcome to the judicial review being pursued by the local community. They have my full support and I will continue to work on this issue at European level in the time ahead.” READ MORE