THIS VIDEO SHOWS Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte being shouted at by a protestor on Friday.
Rabbitte is having his lunch in Buswell’s Hotel – opposite the Kildare Street entrance to Leinster House – when he is approached by a man who had earlier been part of a protest outside Savills auctioneers on Molesworth Street. That protest by People for Economic Justice was in relation to the sale of a repossessed stud farm in Kildare.
While gardai came on the scene at Buswell’s after a disturbance was reported, Justine McCarthy reported in the Sunday Times yesterday that a man who was arrested was NOT the man seen berating Rabbitte in the following video. She reported that Rabbitte’s lunchmate – Peter Stewart, formerly a director of Nama – also rang the gardai to tell them that the man they arrested had not been the man causing the disturbance.
TheJournal.ie has also been told by a witness in Buswell’s that the man arrested and charged with a public order offence is not the man seen in this video. The video also captures bystanders beginning to remark (from 2:20): “That man did nothing. Nothing,” and another is heard to remark “the wrong man”.
The arrest is shown towards the end of the video where it appears that the man arrested is a different person from the man who berated the minister.
A Garda spokesperson told TheJournal.ie that all they could say was that gardai were called to the scene at 2.30pm on Friday at Buswell’s Hotel where a man in his late 20s was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence. He has since been charged and released pending his court appearance in September.
When pressed on whether gardai were looking for anyone else in relation to the disturbance at Buswells, the spokesperson said that “the incident is still under investigation”.
TheJournal.ie has been told that Minister Rabbitte has no comment to make in relation to the incident in Buswells.
(via Biggins Ireland/Youtube.com)
Please note: The comments on this article are not open for legal reasons because there has been an official charge levelled in this case.
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