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Tensions remain high as a further split has emerged with the Beef Plan Movement co-chairs intending to plough ahead with county elections, while the national committee has stated it is postponing elections until after an EGM on 26 January.
There is ongoing turmoil between the co-chairs and the national committee over finance and governance issues which resulted in the dispersal of the Galway AGM on Wednesday night.
“There are a further number of AGMs to take place in the coming days,” the co-chairs said.
They expressed a wish that the disruptive elements that were apparent at the Galway AGM “would stay at home” and allow the creation of elected committees.
Mob rule
The Beef Plan Movement co-chairs Hugh Doyle and Eamon Corley have issued a statement condemning what they label as “mob rule” at a Beef Plan election meeting in Galway on Wednesday night.
In a two-page statement, the co-chairs acknowledge that a “power struggle” has emerged between them and the national committee, and say they put their trust in people they didn’t know in the early days of the organisation.
The Beef Plan has been operating for just over a year and the co-chairs stated that county committees were initially set up informally but were only intended to remain in effect until August 2019, with formally elected county committees due to replace them.
However, the co-chairs state that “this didn’t happen”.
“What emerged was a divide and a struggle to take over power.”
In their opinion, “the bigger picture was lost and representation of the needs of the grassroots members disappeared”.
At the county election meeting in Galway on Wednesday, Corley was greeted with cries from some people in the room of “fraud” and “corruption”.
They attended with their own microphones and took control by mob rule
In the statement, the co-chairs say that individuals from other counties travelled to the Galway meeting for the specific purpose of disrupting it.
They said: “It was taken over by a small organised mob of people mainly from outside the county.”
In their opinion, the main aim of this group was to disrupt the meeting.
“They attended with their own microphones and took control by mob rule,” they said.
They said in their opinion it appeared blatantly obvious the people had no intention of respecting the autonomy of the Galway committee.
“The Galway leadership decided to abandon the meeting for health and safety reasons,” they said.
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