Eighteen beef and sheep plants have been subject to Beef Plan Movement pickets since the protest began on Monday 29 July. Meat Industry Ireland has said it will engage with the Beef Plan “in a constructive manner”, but will not do so while the protests and disruption continue.
Eighteen beef and sheep plants have been subject to Beef Plan Movement pickets since the protest began on Monday 29 July.
Meat Industry Ireland has said it will engage with the Beef Plan “in a constructive manner”, but will not do so while the protests and disruption continue.
Enda Fingleton, one of two men appointed to represent the Beef Plan Movement in talks with factories, has said it will only enter negotiations with Meat Industry Ireland when there are no preconditions attached.
Here we look at what is happening, the flashpoints, the latest pickets and the suspended protests.
Protesters continued to picket outside the meat plant following an incident on Tuesday in which Tipperary Beef Plan Movement chair Joe Trehy was hospitalised.
The incident involved Trehy and another man driving a jeep and trailer. Gardaí told the Irish Farmers Journal they are still investigating. Lighting and CCTV was installed inside the ABP entrance the following morning and Trehy returned to the picket that day.
The protest continued into Friday morning but was suspended around midday “on health and safety grounds”.
Farmers at the Beef Plan Movement protest outside ABP Cahir, Co Tipperary. \ Caitriona Morrissey
ABP Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
The Beef Plan Movement protest at Nenagh in Co Tipperary was suspended temporarily on Thursday.
Seamus O’Brien told the Irish Farmers Journal that the protesters met with management at the factory on Wednesday afternoon. They agreed to suspend the protest pending talks with the factory representative body, Meat Industry Ireland.
However, a picket resumed on Thursday at 2pm.
Enda Fingleton told the Irish Farmers Journal that the Beef Plan had “taken our name off Nenagh because some people were not adhering to our terms and conditions. Nenagh is officially suspended”. On Sunday the south west chair of the group Dermot O'Brien said the protest was suspended as guidelines were breached. "Any farmers present are there of their own free will."
Farmers at the Beef Plan Movement protest outside ABP Nenagh on Monday.
ABP Bandon is the only factory in Cork affected by Beef Plan Movement protests so far.
Protesters said they are there for the long haul as beef prices hit rock bottom.
Bandon was a flashpoint earlier in the week, with gardaí called and long queues of lorries and tractors and trailers waiting to deliver cattle.
Farmers continue to picket outside the plant.
ABP Bandon protest
ABP Rathkeale, Co Limerick.Beef Plan protesters at the Goodman-owned Rathekeale plant have said their picket will continue “indefinitely” until Meat Industry Ireland meets their representatives.
Gardaí have attended the picket in large numbers, according to Fingleton, although there have been no reported incidents at the Limerick factory.
ABP Waterford, Ferrybank, Waterford. Protestors maintain their presence at the Goodman-owned plant in Waterford, where it is reported that very few cattle gained access to the plant this week.
Local farmers at the gates convinced fellow farmers and local hauliers to turn away with their cattle.
In the latter half of the week, Enda Fingleton claimed that feedlot cattle began to arrive.
“They come in double trailers and double deckers,” he said. “You would know they are feedlot cattle, even by the smell of them, they are fed on cakes and there is a sweet smell that you can tell them,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Kepak Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath.The picket remains in place in Kilbeggan. On Monday, the Irish Farmers Journal witnessed one Department of Agriculture vet arrive at the gates and say he would not pass the picket line in support of the farmers present.
Since then, drivers delivering cattle have been gathering a distance from the factory and driving in convoy to deliver cattle, according to Fingleton. He also said that up to three hauliers were delivering a large proportion of the cattle.
Kepak Athleague, Co Roscommon. The scene of an ICSA-led protest over lamb prices less than a month ago, Kepak Athleague is one of the bigger picket sites.
“At this stage, Roscommon farmers feel they have nothing to lose and this is the last stand. During the day is the quietest time but once 7pm comes and farmers are home from work and have their jobs done numbers have risen here to 150 most evenings,” Aidan Doorley, Roscommon Beef Plan Movement committee member, told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Beef Plan protesters at Kepak, Athleague, Co Roscommon. \ Adam Woods.
A number of local vets have supported the Beef Plan Movement and not crossed the picket, while it is understood a number of other vets are reporting for work.
One of the farmers present claimed that a local yard was being used as an assembly centre for cattle and that this has been reported to the Department of Agriculture as a breach of animal movement rules.
Local businesses have been sending food and refreshments to the picketers.
Kepak Clare, Ennis, Co Clare. One of the latest venues for a protest, Beef Plan Movement members and supporters began their trademark walking protest at the factory gates on Friday morning.
Liffey Meats Hackettstown, Co Carlow.Around a dozen farmers gathered around a camp fire outside the Liffey Meats plant in Co Carlow on Wednesday night. The beef factory entrance is festooned with posters asking farmers to respect the picket and decrying corporate greed.
Liffey Meats, Ballinasloe, Co Galway.Dozens of farmers took to the gates of Liffey Meats outside Ballinasloe, Co Galway, with many remaining in place overnight.
“We’ve had 120 people here for the last three nights. There was 40 here this morning at 6am. Farmers are frightened,” Jerry Costello, a suckler farmer from east Galway and Beef Plan Movement member, told the Irish Farmers Journal on Thursday.
Beef Plan members protest outside Liffey Meats Ballinasloe
Costello said the protest is ongoing since Monday and that no cattle have entered the facility as a result.
“Several local farmers came here with cattle and they turned back. We have sympathy with the employees but our cause is a bigger concern.”
Meadow Meats Rathdowney, Co Laois.Lorries with cattle destined for the Dawn Meats-owned Meadow Meats in Rathdowney in Co Laois were parked up around the town for several hours on Friday morning, Enda Fingleton told the Irish Farmers Journal.
He believes that some of the cattle on those lorries were purchased at Kilkenny mart to be deliverd straight to the factory and the drivers were waiting for a call to come in.
However the trucks dispersed after a number of hours.
Some cattle that entered the factory on the previous day were killed before 9am but after that factory staff were reported to be relaxing outside the plant.
Fingleton is among the protesters maintaining a day and night shift outside the plant.
Dawn Meats Grannagh, Co Kilkenny. The Beef Plan Movement protest began at the beef plant in south Kilkenny on Wednesday, just a few miles from the ABP Waterford plant that is also being picketed.
The group claims that the picket was very successful, with only minimal cattle numbers getting through.
Dawn Meats Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo. Farmer numbers have been particularly strong in the Mayo town of Ballyhaunis, where protesters gathered from 6am on Monday.
It is one of three factories in the Galway/Mayo region where farmers are resolute in their mission to keep cattle – and sheep - off the factory line, the others being Kepak Athleague and Liffey Meats in Ballinasloe.
The night shift outside the Mayo plant has numbered over 50 regularly this week and singing to keep their spirits up.
Kildare Chilling, Kildare town, Co Kildare. Beef Plan supporters began to picket the beef and sheep plant on Tuesday and when the Irish Farmers Journal attended, both farmers and hauliers delivered stock, despite pleas from the picketing farmers. However other farmers did turn away.
The protest was suspended on Friday for the weekend.
Ashbourne Meats, Roscrea, Co Tipperary. One of the most recent Beef Plan Movement protests, farmers began to picket at the Roscrea plant on Friday morning.
Slaney Foods, Clohamon, Co Wexford. Gardaí were called to Slaney Foods on Thursday when drivers delivering cattle to the plant tried to make their way through the picket line.
Enda Fingleton said the plant was the scene of “a lot of trouble” and “bully boy tactics”.
On Friday, social media posts claimed that a tractor broke down, blocking up one of the three entrances to the factory.
Liffey Meats, Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan. Scenes at the Liffey Meats plant in the Cavan town were described by Enda Fingleton as “very rough” on Friday.
He reported that a number of drivers delivering cattle congregated before all returning to their vehicles and driving en masse towards the factory gates.
Gardaí were called by the Beef Plan protesters because of aggressive driving by a dealer’s truck, Fingleton told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Dawn Meats Slane, Co Meath.
The protest at the Dawn Meats in Slane, Co Meath, was suspended on Friday morning following an incident at around 6.30am in which a man received serious leg injuries when he was struck by a truck.
He was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda, gardaí confirmed.
Beef Plan protesters at Dawn Meats Slane, Co Meath.
The Irish Farmers Journal understands that the man was speaking to another farmer at the window of a stationary jeep when he was struck.
Eamon Corley, co-chair of the Beef Plan Movement, told the Irish Farmers Journal that the protest was “suspended as a mark of respect to the man”.
Footage has also been seen of a John Deere tractor and trailer driving at and pushing round bales of straw and chairs in front of it on its way out of the factory after delivering cattle earlier in the week.
Read more
Beef Plan ‘will not enter negotiations with preconditions’
‘Unacceptable abuse and intimidation of fellow farmer suppliers’ – factories
Farmers at war with factories
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