Sheep farmers who gave away free lamb chops in the centre of Dublin yesterday to protest over the low prices they are getting were bowled over by the response from Dubliners.
Pre-protest publicity ensured a turn out of up to 200 people, mainly elderly, who besieged the small van which the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association had drawn up at the Spire on O'Connell Street.
"God, we never expected this reaction," said ICSA president Malcolm Thompson, as he found himself trapped at the back door of the van unable to move backwards or forwards.
At one stage the crowd became so intent on getting at the meat that they spilled out on to the traffic lanes and the van had to be moved to prevent someone getting hurt. As the crowd scrambled to get their hands on the 800 packets of free meat, the scene looked like a feeding station in some Third World country being serviced by the Red Cross.
"This is going to be the first Zimmer frame riot I have ever covered," said one photographer as he walked from the scene.
Despite that, the ICSA scored an excellent publicity coup with sheep committee spokesman Mervyn Sunderland declaring he would prefer to give the lamb away rather than accept the price he was being paid for it by the factories and shops.
"We are getting around €75 at the top for our lambs and that same lamb is being sold to the consumer for €240-€270.
"Even allowing for processing and other retail costs, there is something terribly wrong here," he said. "New Zealand lamb is being imported here to suppress our prices and the prices all across Europe.
"Neither the consumer or the farmer is getting any benefit," he added.
Mr Sunderland said he expected to see more sheep farmers leave the industry as it cost €60-€80 to produce a lamb to slaughter weight and farmers would not produce at a loss.