Galway East TD and junior minister Anne Rabbitte has told a court how she had been transfixed with fear and upset when a bag of cow dung was flung at her at a public meeting in Gort, Co Galway, in January of last year.
The Minister of State at the Department of Health was giving evidence at Ennis District Court, Co Clare, in a case in which south Galway farmer, Joseph Baldwin, of Ballyaneen, Gort, is charged with assaulting her at that meeting.
He faces a second charge of engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour likely to lead to a breach of the peace.
Mr Baldwin is contesting both charges.
Minister Rabbitte got visibly upset as she gave details of the events on the evening of 4 January 2023.
She had been late into a public meeting which had been called to discuss plans to build a biogas factory in Gort, and recounted that there had been a lot of anger and emotion about the location of the plant.
Ms Rabbitte said that she had seen her Dáil colleague, Fine Gael TD Ciarán Cannon, also at the meeting.
She recalled how one man had made his contribution like everyone else, and had then taken three steps and flung a bag of something at Deputy Cannon.
This man had then taken a breath, she said, and - looking directly at her - had said: '"And I'm not forgetting about you. There's one for you, Rabbitte, as well," before flinging a bag at her.
He had been very angry, Minister Rabbitte said, adding that she had been transfixed.
"I'll never forget the white of his eyes."
"I did not feel safe. Here I was in the middle of the people who elected me. The people of Gort are my people."
She told the court that she had not known if she would be able to stay standing, and asked herself: "What was after happening, what was that?".
Ms Rabbitte said that, as a public representative, she had to behave in a certain manner.
She just took it, and did not become abusive, but she had not known if the two legs would go from under her when somebody picked up the bag and said it was "a bag of shit".
The minister had gasped and felt that she was being attacked, and had wanted to scream. She recalled that nobody did anything, and no-one had asked if she was alright.
When asked who had thrown the bag of cow dung at her, Minister Rabbitte said it was the accused man, Joseph Baldwin.
Under cross-examination defence solicitor Darragh Hassett challenged Ms Rabbitte's recollection of events at Gort that night, and said that the bag of cow dung had never hit the deputy at all.
He said that camera footage and the statements from several witnesses from that night would confirm this.
He then asked her why she had said that the bag had hit her, when it had not.
Minister Rabbitte said that she had felt that it had hit her, adding that she still feels that.
She crossed her hands over her chest to indicate to Judge Alec Gabbett where she had been hit.
Fine Gael TD Ciarán Cannon said Mr Baldwin approached him at that public meeting and threw a small plastic bag of material - now known to be animal excrement - at him which landed on the floor at his feet.
He said that in his 20 years working as a public representative, where he has attended hundreds of meetings, he has never had a projectile thrown at him.
Mr Cannon said he was taken aback by the action and did have concerns about his safety as a public representative.
He added that he also questioned if he now needed to reconsider attending public meetings.
