FOLLOWING LAST WEEK’S clashes between protesters and gardaí outside Leinster House, the force was taking no chances today ahead of another expected demonstration.
Last Wednesday night, two Labour senators were forced to abandon their cars on Kildare Street after protesters prevented them from leaving the Oireachtas complex.
During the scuffles, a Garda was hit and injured by a traffic cone. One person was also arrested on the day. A sit-down protest was only ended after gardaí agreed to stand down.
On Friday, the Garda Commissioner was asked to account for what happened in front of a Dáil committee.
This afternoon, from around lunchtime, a number of barriers were erected around the Kildare Street entrance to the Oireachtas complex with Molesworth Street also blocked off.
Over two-dozen gardaí and two officers on horses were deployed with several barriers also erected in anticipation of another significant protest…
But it never happened. Instead there were a number of small demonstrations by a number of groups on issues not related to water.
A number of people were protesting in relation to alleged garda mishandling of cases involving the death of family members. These included the families of John Kelly and Dolores Maxwell.
These cases have been examined by a review panel established by the Department of Justice to examine over 300 cases in the wake of the garda controversies that played out over the course of last year.
There was also a demonstration by a group remembering the massacre at Srebrenica, the 20th anniversary of which is being commemorated across Europe this year:
But as the afternoon wore on the large-scale protest that had clearly been expected never happened. By this evening the gardaí were gone and the barriers had been removed.
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