Campaigns officer at the Irish Wildlife Trust, Pádraic Fogarty, resigned from his position this weekend after he claimed that a blog he wrote which was published on the website, criticising farming organisations, was edited with parts of it removed.
The article, which was published on the Irish Wildlife Trust’s website last Saturday, July 15th, was titled Drift of the Farm Orgs and was under the opinion section of the website.
The article’s webpage features a disclaimer saying that the blog represents the views of the author and is not an Irish Wildlife Trust position.
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week with Justin McCarthy, Mr Fogarty said that his article was changed following a complaint from the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
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The blog accused farmers’ representatives of spreading far-right conspiracy theories and undermining climate science.
It claimed that farming bodies were “increasingly lurching to the far right”, and accused them of spreading far-right conspiracy theories and undermining climate science.
In a two-line statement issued to RTÉ today, the Irish Wildlife Trust said it acknowledged with regret Mr Fogarty’s resignation and described him as a true advocate of nature and that it wishes him well with his future endeavours.
The IFA told the programme that it believed some of the comments in the blog, which accused farming bodies of becoming “a kind of DUP of Irish civil society”, were defamatory and divisive.
Following the complaint from the IFA, the blog was edited and references to the “far right” and the DUP were removed.
A note was also added to the article saying that it had been updated “to remove political references that could be perceived as divisive”.
Mr Fogarty said he was told that the blog would be edited but was not part of discussions about why the 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,” Mr Fogarty told RTÉ.
Mr Fogarty had been involved with the Irish Wildlife Trust for 20 years and said it “is one of the most amazing environmental organisations we’ve had in Ireland and it has absolutely amazing staff”, but that in this instance the board moved ahead without giving him room to manoeuvre.
“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 resign.”
Mr Fogarty is a frequent commentator on radio, television and in print on issues which affect wildlife and biodiversity and was one of the organisation’s most prominent spokesperson.
