FitzPatrick’s reversal of fortunes makes for a very telling tale

Perhaps there is no more telling a tale of Seán FitzPatrick’s reversal of fortunes than the May 2005 Greencore AGM.

There was a febrile atmosphere. The backdrop was the thorny issue of the closure of beet processing plants in Carlow and Cork. The then Greencore CEO David Dilger came in for a torrent of abuse. A number of farmers, calling themselves Greenshare and headed up by the former president of the IFA, Joe Rea, berated Mr Dilger for his stewardship of the company.

Perhaps their most stinging criticism was that he wasn’t Seán FitzPatrick. Mr FitzPatrick was on the board of Greencore and was a couple of seats away from Mr Digler.