The protest in Athlone on Saturday, 10th January 2026 was a momentous turning point in the long saga that is the Mercosur trade deal. Independent Ireland did a fantastic job in organising all the moving parts flawlessly on the day. Ciaran Mullooly MEP and Michael Fitzmaurice, long time campaigners against the Mercosur deal, received a rapturous welcome from the estimated 20,000 plus crowd.
It’s not unusual in Ireland for public opinion and that of government and mainstream media (arguably interlinked entities) to diverge sharply on a variety of issues and the Mercosur deal is no exception. Government parties across the past few years have backed various votes that have slowly moved the deal closer and the most recent vote was promising to be no exception.
In the run-up to the protest, the media swung into action with a selection of offerings suggesting that the protest was coming too late, it was already signed and there was no point in showing up. However, not willing to be fooled by increasingly obvious media manipulation, farmers forged full steam ahead with plans and the public rowed in with strong support behind them.
Coverage of the protest in many cases shamefully omitted mention of the party that organised it and also conveniently failed to mention all the farming groups that came together on the day to stand against the Mercosur deal. Media coverage since then has tended to lean heavily in the direction of positive positioning of the deal as broadly beneficial for Ireland in increasing the range of produce available to them while decreasing the cost of goods.
Exceedingly concerning environmental and public health concerns have been whitewashed as ‘potential’ issues mentioned briefly, with some commenting on the hypocrisy of ‘farmers being concerned about the environment or climate’.
Recent and deeply serious concerns in relation to environmental and farming practices in Brazil have largely been ignored, as has the catastrophic failure of EU public safety regulations as meat from Brazil, known to contain hormones identified as potential carcinogens, made its way across Europe and to consumer plates in Ireland.
Use of this hormone in Ireland has been illegal for decades and a farmer possessing (never mind using) such hormones can and will be jailed. Upon receiving evidence that meat from Brazil containing these hormones has been proven to have reached Irish plates, the media response is……nothing.
This is not the first problematic shipment of meat and it is doubtful that it will be the last. The testing regime, especially when compared to intense scrutiny of Irish farms, is woefully lacking. The Beef Plan Movement Chairman, Eamon Corley, in his speech at the protest, read out part of a label displayed in the Drogheda branch of the Subway fast food chain, and photographed recently by a Beef Plan member, that states: “Dawn Farm Foods Ltd certifies that the raw materials used in the production of the beef products supplied to Subway Restaurants in Ireland are currently sourced from EU approved plants in Europe and Brazil. Is this beef safe? Who knows?
I’m exceptionally proud of our Irish farmers who united to say a resounding NO to a deal that should never be on the table. Farmers are only asking for a fair playing field and the solution is exceptionally simple – if Brazilian beef cannot be proven to meet the environmental and public health standards to beef produced all across Europe, then exclude it from the deal. Given that the proof that Brazil cannot comply with these standards is undeniable, why is this even a question?
The protest can be considered to be a resounding success, having pushed the Irish government into voting against the deal. The next big step is to keep the pressure on so that when 720 MEPs from all over Europe come together to vote on the deal, they will vote to preserve standards, safeguard public health and ensure fair trade for European farmers – as they rightly should.