By Justin McCarthy & Elayne Devlin
The Campaigns Officer at the Irish Wildlife Trust has resigned from his position after a blog he wrote criticising farming organisations was edited, and parts of it removed.
Pádraic Fogarty said his article, which was published on the Irish Wildlife Trust website on Saturday of last week, was changed after a complaint from the Irish Farmers Association.
The blog which was titled "Drift of the Farm Orgs" had accused farmers' representatives of spreading far-right conspiracy theories and undermining climate science.
It claimed the main farming bodies were "increasingly lurching to the far right".
The IFA told RTÉ's This Week programme that it believed some of the comments in the blog were defamatory and divisive.
Mr Fogarty was the Irish Wildlife Trust’s most prominent spokesman, and is a frequent commentator on radio, television and in print on issues which affect wildlife and biodiversity.
In his article he accused the farming bodies of spreading conspiracy theories and "undermining scientists" and said they had adopted a hard 'no’ position on nearly all measures designed to address the climate and biodiversity emergencies.
He accused them of becoming "a kind of DUP of Irish civil society".
In the days after the blog was published, the IFA made a complaint to the board of the Irish Wildlife Trust about the article.
Following the IFA’s intervention, the blog was edited, and references to the "far-right" and the DUP were removed.
A note was added to say that the article had been updated "to remove political references that could be perceived as divisive."
The author of the blog, Mr Fogarty, yesterday resigned from his position as Campaigns Officer with the Irish Wildlife Trust.
He accused the board of the organisation of "capitulating" to the IFA.
He said he was told by the board of the Wildlife Trust that his blog was going to be edited, but was not part of any discussion about why that decision was made.
"For that reason I felt that I couldn’t support the position of the board, and my position was untenable, and I resigned from the Irish Wildlife Trust."
Asked whether the edits to his piece were made as a direct result of the IFA’s complaint, Mr Fogarty said "I certainly think that was in the mix … things only escalated after the IFA made a complaint".
"I feel it has in part been a capitulation to the IFA."
He said he believes the board of the Irish Wildlife Trust made a mistake in accepting some of the IFA’s criticism about his blog.
"I felt the board left me in a position without room to manoeuvre, and I can’t obviously be speaking in public against the board of the Irish Wildlife Trust, so I felt the most appropriate thing to do was to resign," he said.
The Irish Farmers' Association said "it noted the intervention by the board of the Irish Wildlife Trust, following correspondence from IFA, to remove certain defamatory comments..."
"We are seeking a meeting with the Board of the IWT to discuss the article and why it was allowed to remain in the public domain for almost a week."
"Much of what remains of the article is still extremely divisive," it said.
The board of the Irish Wildlife Trust said it acknowledges with regret that Mr Fogarty has tendered his resignation from his role as spokesperson for the Irish Wildlife Trust.
"Padraic is a true advocate for nature and a long-term member of the IWT. We wish him the very best with his future endeavours" it said.
