A Government Minister has told a court how she felt vulnerable and unsafe after a man threw a bag of cow dung towards her at a public meeting.
Anne Rabbitte, a Minister of State and the Fianna Fáil TD for Galway East, cried in the witness box as she recounted the incident at a packed public meeting at O’Sullivans Royal Hotel, Gort, Co Galway on January 4th, 2023.
Ms Rabbitte told Gort District Court, which was sitting in Ennis on Friday, that she was “picked out” by Joseph Baldwin during the meeting about a planned biogas plant in the area.
“There was no safety. I didn’t feel safe in a public space with the people that elected me,” she said.
“I felt I was the most vulnerable person in the room.”
She added: “I didn’t feel protected or feel safe there.”
Asked why she went to gardaí later that night after the public meeting, Ms Rabbitte said: “There is a line and I felt it was crossed that night and no one spoke up for me and I had to speak up for myself that night.”
In the case, Galway farmer Joseph Baldwin (39), of Ballyaneen, Gort, denies assaulting Anne Rabbitte on January 4th, 2023, at the public meeting, contrary to Section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
Recounting the incident, Ms Rabbitte said she saw a man throw a bag towards her Galway East constituency colleague, Fine Gael TD Ciarán Cannon.
CCTV footage played to the court on Friday afternoon showed Mr Baldwin say, “here is a bag of cow s***e for you” before throwing the bag in the direction of Mr Cannon. The bag fell at the feet of Mr Cannon.
After witnessing Mr Baldwin throwing the bag towards Mr Cannon, Ms Rabbitte told the court that she thought “Jesus. God help us. What is after happening to Ciarán? How will he recover from that one?”
The CCTV footage showed Mr Baldwin turn and then throw a bag in the direction of Ms Rabbitte. The court heard from an eyewitness that the bag contained "a green liquid substance".
Minister Rabbitte said the man “was incredibly angry, his face was red”.
She said: “The white of his eyes I won’t forget.”
Ms Rabbitte said the man said to her "'I am not forgetting about you, there is one for you Rabbitte' and then he threw a bag at her as well.
After the bag fell on the ground beside her, Ms Rabbitte said: “I didn’t know if the two legs were going to go from under me.”
“Someone picked it up and said that it was a bag of s**t,” she said.
Ms Rabbitte said: “I wanted to scream my head off because no one said that what was happening was wrong.”
On going to the local Garda station to report what occurred, Ms Rabbitte said: “It is tough, we do what we do, but I love it and it is a privilege, and I apologise judge to be bawlin’ my way through it, but someone had to speak up.”
The solicitor for Mr Baldwin, Daragh Hassett, said eight eyewitnesses who were present on the night who gave statements to the gardaí said the bag thrown by Mr Baldwin did not hit Ms Rabbitte.
Mr Hassett said: "It is quite clear from the footage that no bag struck you at all."
Ms Rabbitte said: “I still feel it. You can’t deny me my feelings.”
Mr Hassett told Ms Rabbitte after hearing her evidence “you are a very unreliable historian”. Mr Hassett described Ms Rabbitte's direct evidence as "quite emotive".
During cross-examination, Mr Hassett told Ms Rabbitte: "This isn't the Dáil now, you can't be making speeches."
Mr Hassett said that Ms Rabbitte told gardaí that the bag had struck Mr Cannon and pointed out Mr Cannon had told gardaí that the bag did not hit him, but instead landed at his feet.
Mr Hassett said her statement to gardaí that she was struck by the bag was “inaccurate and misleading” when seen alongside the CCTV evidence which shows that the bag did not hit her.
Mr Hassett said: “It is not assault.”
The case continues.
