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IF THE GOVERNMENT’S only response to protest “is a policing one or security one”, it will fail, Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said today as he called for a more “nuanced approach” to pandemic protests.
He told reporters that politicians need to listen to the concerns of the people “on the edges” of anti-lockdown protests “who lack hope”.
Gardaí are due to mount a massive operation to prevent planned anti-lockdown protests in Dublin tomorrow.
More than 2,500 gardaí will be deployed across checkpoints and arterial routes on St Patrick’s Day.
Speaking at Leinster House, Ó Ríordáin said his party would not encourage people to attend any protests, for any reason, during Level 5 restrictions.
“But we also think that the rhetoric from the Government has to be different. The far-right only ever achieve anything in any country when there is a vacuum.
And if people have no hope, or are not offered hope, or are only offered a return to normal when for many people normal was the problem, well then they are only going to grow.
“They are only going to get more support from people who are disaffected or fear there is no hope,” he said.
Deep frustration
He said that on the edges of marches and protests, there are plenty of people who attend that don’t necessarily buy in to everything the far-right groups are saying, but who are “deeply frustrated” because of the loss of their job. Or simply, they don’t have any sense of hope anymore.
If the government’s only response to a far-right protest is a policing one or security one, it will fail, said Ó Ríordáin.
Labour said it is appealing to government to acknowledge the problems that people are facing, such as the 57% youth unemployment rate.
The Labour TD said the far-right groups organising such protests are well organised, well-funded and have an agenda.
“However, on the edges of that discussion will always be somebody who feels a lack of hope, and they [the far-right] will present themselves as being the only people who care. The only people who care about your business or your last job or the fact that you can’t find housing, or the economic inequality that you’re suffering. They’re the only people who care,” he said.
He said the government needs to be “clever and compassionate” to people who feel drawn to protest.
If the government just shrugs their shoulders and “suggests that everybody involved in the protest tomorrow is beyond hope, beyond redemption, and totally in the net of the far right, well then you’re making a very big mistake,” he said.
“If nobody is speaking to your life, if nobody is understanding about how frustrated you are, if nobody is having some level of understanding as to why you’re frustrated, you want to be on the streets, if the only thing they hear is condemnation, well then, they’re not going to connect with that,” he said.
“I’m asking for governments to be nuanced in their approach,” he told reporters.
Labour has no patience for people who want to break the regulations, he said, but added that politicians can no longer ignore the vibrations of the far-right as just being a nuisance.
However, speaking today Minster Simon Harris said previous protests that turned violent were “an attack on our democracy and it was an attack on who we are as a people”.
He told reporters: “At the moment, any congregation in large numbers in breach of the public health guidelines, is a risk to our health and safety. We have to be consistent in relation to that.
“Things that are well meaning or things that people can feel strongly about could make people sick.”
Guidelines
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) said the protests planned for St Patrick’s Day have highlighted yet again the need for guidelines for people who want to protest in a peaceful and pandemic-safe manner.
ICCL’s Head of Legal and Policy, Doireann Ansbro, said during an emergency, the right to protest can be restricted but not banned entirely.
The group said the government has provided guidelines on the right to education, as well as on exercise and work via the Living With Covid plan. The right to freedom of assembly is as vital to our society and the public is entitled to know what kind of protests are safe at which levels.
It added that protesters must always balance their rights with their responsibilities, and must remain peaceful in order to have the protection of the law. They urged all protesters tomorrow to protest in a peaceful and pandemic-safe manner.
“We would also encourage protesters to research the organisers of your event, who may have a different agenda to yours,” said the ICCL.
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Don’t remember the garda begin so interested im policing the BLM protests last year…. the government and their puppet masters in nephed either. People have the right to protest. This is not the USSR. As long as there are precautions and social distancing in place no problem. Lock up the people who infiltrate to take part in violent actions and stop blaming all protesters on the acts of a few
@Marc Power: you spotted that well. Depending how favourable the authorities are for the cause, they will police in different way. Prepare for authoritarian style tomorrow. E.g. in Netherlands, during the BLM and Climate Change protests, the police really keep low profile. BUT at anti lockdown demo’s the opposite, then they show their totalitarian nature…. See this video from last Sunday in The Hague, forward to 10 min, 8 seconds…. never seen anything like it, they literally put a police dog on an activist and make him bite… pure sadism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvUD44YNcDU
@Raymond Scott: at 8 min 32 seconds, the so called ‘Romeo’s’ are running out of police vehicle… they are from the undercover police unit. They often mix with the crowd from the start and stir things up. But people start to recognize them now….
@Marc Power: tediously predictable whataboutery
@DJ François: try making a sensible comment instead of ranting in strange language
@Marc Power: easily understood English
@Raymond Scott: You must be an anti vaxer too.
@Marc Power: try posing a sensible comment when you have an understanding of language beyond single syllable words. Ops.. sen si bil.. My bad.
@Billy McNamara: no, am not against vaccines. Though not getting one myself.
@Raymond Scott: why not?
@Marc Power: I’m sorry to hear about your assaults. However you complain about the response from the gardaí, and criticise giving them increased powers during the pandemic? Did they actually get increased powers, or did the government enact emergency legislation, just like almost every other government in the world.
@JG: try sticking to the subject instead of trying to prove your competence level In English
@Arch Angel: no they have increased powers. A dangerous thing for a corrupt, incompetent force
Didn’t Joan the moan not have people from Johnstown in front of a judge for protesting.. and having the neck to have mobile phones…Course these people were riff raff… labour.. don’t make me laugh
@Shay Redmond.: No, that was for unlawful imprisonment
@Shay Redmond.: There were 300 BLM protests in USA, involving millions and CDC says there was no spike in covid because outdoors is safe. Funerals with hundreds of travellers take place, with minimal policing. Ordinary decent people want to protest and Gardai clamp down. What’s going on here?
We have a labour party? I think not.
I’d like to ask him as one of my local T.D.’s that if he’s so concerned about people lacking hope then why is it that no one round the area has heard this from him in the last year? Serial bandwagon jumper…
@William Tallon:We all know if labour were back in government he wouldn’t saying anything at all .
Long comment alert:
There should be a positive message being communicated. Vulnerable people and elderly will be covered by vax in a few weeks.. this could easily be the point we celebrate “Covid Over”. Vaccines are proving to be >95% effective. MUCH better than expected.
18 deaths today is still too many for Ireland. Each year there are ~100 deaths from flu here. With approx 300-450 more deaths from it indirectly. So taking highest figures that’s 550 deaths per year. That’s about 3 deaths per day during the flu season.
When we hit 2 or 3 covid death per day, and flu being essentially gone, this gives a good metric to end this madness. As long as hospitals aren’t struggling (they are not) and as long as all vulnerable and elderly are vaccinated (a few weeks to go) and we are only getting 2 deaths per day we should open society back up..completely. That’s close..It’s like a few weeks away. I think we should he hopeful ..and it’s just a pity NPHET can’t communicate this kind of what-if scenario to a ‘level 0′ open.
We need positive communication from NPHET. If they start to slowly ease restrictions in any kind of piecemeal way for months we will all crack up completely, not just the demonstrators tommorow. We need to go full hard open and fast. ASAP. Let this mild virus spread to the younger healthier unvaxed ppl which is a strategy of many other countries including 20 of the states in USA right now.
We need to tell the demonstrators/rioters tommorow WHEN it is they’ll get what they are looking for. 2 weeks? 4 weeks? It cant go longer. Most people have hit breaking point.
@cianj: Well doctor, its reassuring to hear from someone qualified who’s worked on the front lines and isn’t afraid to give their opinion. I mean you are…?
@cianj: you do realise that the death figure is not deaths from Covid, but deaths of people who tested positive for Corona virus with a faulty test? If someone dies in hospital from their injuries following a car crash, but a PCR test comes out positive while they’re there, they are part of the covid death figures, and that’s a global agreement on how to count ‘covid deaths’. Fact, not conspiracy. If you doubt that do your research.
So long as every protester is adhering to the 5k limit, no harm done. Otherwise, fines for the lot of em just like the rest of us. Nuanced enough?
@mar: Godwin alert
@DJ François: didn’t take long..
@Adrian O’Donnell:
Complaining that a woman was tragically killed in a foreign country – let’s have a protest here and risk more lives, isn’t going to solve anything. I’m not being flippant, I sympathise with the family of Sarah Everard but I don’t wish to see others die or be ill protesting or holding vigils. Neither is other people complaining ‘but this protest was allowed last year, cracking down now is just an authoritarian response’, this is deliberately provocative.
We know we’re still in the middle of a Covid epidemic, we’re all fed up of lockdowns and would like to see the back of them. Doing something that is likely to make the current Covid situation worse is childishly stupid, no matter how noble their cause no group has this right, even if they believe they can give it to themselves. What seems worse is that most politicians are afraid to stand up and say this, as if it’ll cost them a few votes, somewhere. It’s even worse to basically say “ah but God love them, sure don’t they feel hopeless”.
We’re either going to work towards the end of lockdown, wearing masks, observing social distancing and, hopefully, getting our vaccine. If some people don’t wear masks, don’t give a damn about social distancing or vaccines but then whinge about lockdown, what do they want? It’s everyone else who is suffering for them.
@Arch Angel: Totally agree but consistency in application of the law would help. Huge traveller funerals involving hundreds if not thousands are allowed with a few fines that will never be paid. Student street parties and house parties for months that can be tracked with basic mobile phone locator tech yet no Garda action quick enough to stop them.
When last in government the so called Labour party drained people of all hope. They supported every austerity measure interduced by F.G. It took them reduced to six seats to find their road to Damascus moment.
What is Far Right because for FG,FF any objection to their ways is it seems branded far right
@Michael Maher: did you read the article?
I don’t particular like Aodhan but he’s right here.
Just don’t let the riff raff protest.
I know 2 id iot.s who are going there tomorow, but not for losing their jobs or anything like that, but because they believe that PCR test reset your brains and vaccines are there to control your brain or something like that. I wish the PCR test part is true, I need one.
@Nikolina Fiume: Reset their brains…? And that describes the intelligence level.
8 out of 10 lives could have been saved by using Ivermectin, never mind the untold misery of lockdowns, isolation, unquantifiable psychology effects on children, mental health, missed or delayed hospital appointments etc etc NICE UK TV CLIP FOR YOU BELOW. Journal this is fact, don’t censor this. https://twitter.com/roibeard1973/status/1371962301151121412?s=20
I label them as selfish, now back to the back benches Labour
People have the right to protest but they have the responsibility to do so in an appropriate way given that we are in a pandemic that’s killing our fellow citizens day in day out. Anti lockdown protests come off as unorganised and full of muppets that look like they don’t wear masks because they could barely tie their shoelaces either.
This is an example of an effective protest, and I highly doubt the anti lockdown brigade will go to this level of thought. If they are from beyond 5k, if they don’t do the social distancing, and if they get up in the gardai’s face, then fine them.
Looks like Aodhan is working from home not talking to this great nation from the seat of its government.
It’s BS anyway, what Irish people need are vaccines and quickly – the ‘hope’ will follow.
How about labour take a long walk off a short cliff.
this sums it up – https://twitter.com/AidiMac/status/1371842944567709696
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