Poster blitz accused could face charges

September 1993

The DPP has been asked to consider whether criminal charges should be brought against four people who are accused of illegally erecting posters under cover of darkness in Wexford last week.

The posters, which had abusive slogans concerning Minister for Health Brendan Howlin, went up all over Wexford town in the early hours of last Friday morning, appearing on pub and shop windows, rubbish bins, and lamp posts.

The four accused, who are all members of an anti-abortion group, were obsevered by Wexford gardai in a van containing posters, paste, brushes and ladders at about 2.30 a.m. on Friday morning.

The officers advised them that if they erected the posters, they would find themselves in breach of the Litter Act. A few hours later, the same gardai observed that dozens of posters has been put up all over South Main Street and The Quays.

Shop and pub owners woke up on Friday morning to disocver the posters pasted on windows and doors, and they had to go to considerable trouble to remove them.

Outraged members of the Labour Party in Wexford removed other posters which had been erected on poles and in public places.

Supt. Noel Smith of Wexford Garda Station said the gardai would be giving statements to Wexford Corporation, to faciilitate a prosecution under the Litter Act. He confirmed that a file has already been sent ot the DPP.

Meanwhile, the Wexford Pro Life Campaign has publicly declared that it was not involved in and did not wish to be associated with the fixing of posters to people’s windows without their permission.

The four people accused of last week’s postering blitz are understood to be connected to another group, which picketed Minister Howlin’s mother’s house in Wexford earlier this year.