The election of officers to the Galway Beef Plan committee descended into chaos on Wednesday night at its AGM, with angry farmers objecting to the election taking place, resulting in the meeting being abandoned.

At least 300 farmers were at the Turloughmore Social Centre for the meeting, with Galway the first county to hold elections for the Beef Plan Movement.

Backdrop

The backdrop to the meeting was the national committee of the group being at war with its founders Hugh Doyle and Eamon Corley over financial and governance issues, with Galway in particular a major flashpoint, especially around Beef Plan elections.

Wednesday night’s meeting kicked off with Galway Beef Plan chair Kevin O’Brien giving his address, highlighting the protests around the country, the pickets at the factories and the progress Beef Plan has made since it was set up.

Down to business

Getting down to the business of the night, O’Brien said the rules and governance of Beef Plan were signed on 6 December last and one of these rules is that county AGMs would be held before 15 January.

“In Galway, we are the first county to have a county AGM, so we’re kicking it off here tonight.

“I won’t say much more, I want to try and get straight into elections, so while the election is going on I have to step aside myself as chair and take a back seat. I’m going to call on Nigel here, if it’s OK with everyone, to call the election as it goes,” he said.

A handful of people said no to this, with one person saying O'Brien was not nominated. O’Brien responded and asked: “Who do ye want to nominate?”

Several voices said: “Eoin Donnelly”, with one person seconding him. Another said: “John Daly”. This was followed by a call of “seconded”.

Kevin O’Brien then said: “I have a Joseph Woulfe up the front [to call the election]." The response to this was “no” from several voices from the floor.

You haven’t followed the rules and governance of the organisation. You’re a disgrace the way you’ve ran this

Michael McManus of Roscommon Beef Plan then said that: “You haven’t followed the rules and governance of the organisation. You’re a disgrace the way you’ve ran this.”

O’Brien responded, saying: “You’re not from the county.”

Someone from the floor then roared: “Shut your f*****g mouth, you’re at it all the time,” with another adding: “McManus, you hijacked the meeting in Longford last night … enough is enough - and I’m a Cavan man.”

Microphone

Eamon Corley then started speaking on the microphone: “I want to say something. Everything here tonight includes everybody in the room, goes through whoever’s chairing the meeting, that’s the only way we’ll have an orderly meeting.”

O’Brien then said: “I have a proposal here for Joseph Woulfe. Does someone want to second it?” A call of “I second it” was made.

Personal amp

Galway PRO Jackie Flannery then took out her own microphone and told the room she had an objection to Joseph Woulfe.

“And while I’m at it, I’m standing here tonight as the PRO of Galway and I’m absolutely disgusted with what’s happened over the last couple of months and the last couple of weeks.

“I joined Beef Plan because I believed in it and I stood at the factory gates with the farmers. Tonight, because you have brought this organisation into disrepute, I propose a vote of no confidence in you, Kevin O’Brien, because you have gone and you have made decisions and the final one was last Friday night when we made the decision to do things at the committee meeting,” she said.

We owe that to all the farmers - not only in Galway but across the country - that we can work together

Corley then interjected again: “I’m just going to say this again and I’m here as an observer of the election, so I’m entitled to say this. I just want to make it very clear. We have come a long way in Beef Plan in the last 14/15 months … it’s up to us to show an example … it’s our objective to get the elections done and proper committees in place.

“That’s what we’re going to do here in Galway and we want to stick to the task at hand. We owe that to all the farmers - not only in Galway but across the country - that we can work together, put a proper organisation together and concentrate on the price of beef.”

‘Corruption’ and ‘fraud’

Corley’s speech was interrupted with shouts of “corruption” and “fraud” from the floor.

The meeting then descended into a shouting match, with O’Brien saying that Woulfe would take over from him now to get on with the election.

“Objection from the floor,” and “this is not fair,” came the next shouts.

Woulfe then took the mic: “For chair, we have three nominations: Kevin O’Brien, Martin Heverin, Noel Kelly and now we’re going to start the voting.”

There were then roars of “Eoin Donnelly” from the floor, with some of those in attendance saying he should have been on the ballot paper.

Woulfe then said: “Eoin is not a Beef Plan member.”

The room then erupted with more objections to this statement.

Corley said: “Eoin Donnelly is not registered, that has been known for weeks,” which resulted in more objections and shouts from the floor.

Corley tried to regain control of the meeting, saying the only way they could have a proper organisation was if they followed the rules and called out the names of the three candidates, adding: “We’ll start the election now.”

The truth

“Do ye really want to hear the truth?” Jackie Flannery said.

“I rallied the troops in Elphin and Athleague, I rallied the troops in Liffey, but I cannot sit on a committee as full of bullshit and lies."

“Last Friday night, we had a committee meeting and I’m not in any breach of confidentiality lads, so don’t throw the rulebook at me. The decision was taken last Friday night that I was going to print the ballot papers. Right or wrong, Kevin? Why when I emailed you on the sixth you didn’t respond?” she said.

“Then you said that Declan Donohoe would sort it. Why was I not rang and told that that changed? Who made the decision? Because that’s what you’re good at, you’re making decisions on your own all the time and that’s what’s been happening with the Galway Beef Plan committee,” she said.

This resulted in a round of applause.

There was then a shouting match between Flannery and O’Brien, with Corley again trying to gain back control. Any time he tried to move on with the election, he was drowned out by shouting from the crowd of “no”.

Several people then approached the top table where the committee was sitting, with both factions of farmers arguing their cases with the opposite side for several minutes, with calls from the top table for people to “sit down”.

Intervention

Fianna Fáil TD for Galway Anne Rabbitte, who was present at the meeting from the start, then stood up on a chair and took the microphone.

Before she started speaking, a man shouted: “Two more minutes and I’ll have the guards in Claregalway here.”

“Look everybody," Rabbitte said. "Can I just have two minutes of your time? And the reason I’m taking two minutes of your time is I want to bring calm to the room just for two minutes and let’s put it in perspective.

“Look at the crowd that has gathered here for Galway Beef Plan. Why can we not do this fairly and squarely, democratically, transparently and fairly for everybody? It is quite apparent to me and a lot of people sitting in this room that there’s exclusion, discrimination and unfair treatment.

“I’m a pure republican so I don’t believe in that. I believe in democracy, in putting your name forward and if you fail in putting your name forward, so be it, stand by it. But I want the best people representing Galway.

“We’ve the largest number of suckler cows in the country and we can’t organise a meeting to elect people. What are we at? We’re the laughing stock of the country tonight,” she said.

Then there were shouts from the room of “get down”.

Rabbitte continued: “Nobody wants anything to get out of hand here tonight, but as Jackie Flannery earlier said, let the truth be told in a cordial fashion.

“If ye decide not to tell the truth, I think this meeting should be disbanded once and for all.”

It was then that a speaker from the top table where the committee sat said: “And on that note, this meeting is now over. We’re calling it off because it’s got to a stage where people are too high-tempered, somebody is going to get hurt and it will end up in complete disarray.”

Farmers then began to leave the room, with some remaining to ask questions of Corley about their memberships and other members of the Galway Beef Plan committee. No date has been set for the AGM to reconvene.

For more, see www.farmersjournal.ie on Thursday.

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