The late John Hanrahan will be remembered for winning landmark pollution case against Merck Sharp & Dohme
The funeral took place on Monday of Ballyneale farmer John Hanrahan, who won a landmark legal case in the 1980s over harm caused to his animals from pollution emissions from the nearby Merck Sharp & Dohme factory at Ballydine, Kilsheelan.
Mr Hanrahan from Ballycurkeen House, Carrick-on-Suir passed away last Friday at the age of 75.
His family, friends and neighbours gathered at St Mary’s Church in Ballyneale on Monday for his Requiem Mass, which was celebrated by Fr Jimmy Browne, IC of Ballyneale/Grangemockler Parish and concelebrated by Fr Paul Waldron, PP of St Nicholas Parish in Carrick-on-Suir.
He will be forever remembered as the farmer who took on the might of a large multi-national company in a David and Goliath like battle over the harm caused to his livestock by pollution, with more than 200 of his animals dying.
The case ended up in the Supreme Court which ruled in his favour in 1988.
A book on the Hanrahan family’s case against Merck Sharp & Dohme called, The Red Book, was published by RTE journalist Jerry O’Callaghan, who did much to bring the family’s plight to national prominence through his reports on the station’s Landmark and Today Tonight programmes.
The Hanrahan family’s legal victory is credited with leading to a change in government attitudes in the jobs-versus-environment debate and a few years after the ruling the Environmental Protection Agency was set up.
Sadly it wasn’t to be the end of Mr Hanrahan’s legal battles. Another long-running case began in 2006, this time against the Department of Agriculture over its seizure of cattle from his farm due to a dispute about their welfare.
Mr Hanrahan won his action against the Department of Agriculture in both the High Court and Supreme Court, which gave its ruling in 2017.
It’s understood there are still issues in relation to the case that have yet to be finalised.
Following his Requiem Mass, Mr Hanrahan was laid to rest in the cemetery adjoining St Mary’s Church. He is survived by his loving wife Selina, sons Ambrose and Charles, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, daughters- in-law Kim and Alison, grandchildren Jessica, Ronan, Lauren, Keelan and Lucy, nieces, nephews, relatives and friends.