Video: After Eviction, Outraged Occupy Dame St activists March on Pearse St Garda Station

by Andrew - WSM Fri Mar 09, 2012 12:25

Over 150 people gathered at the Central Bank last night in the aftermath of the eviction of Occupy Dame Street (ODS). They then marched to Pearse street Garda station to demand the return of confiscated property but for unknown reasons the Garda prevented them for reaching the station, knocking many to the ground while doing so. Following on from the violence used during the 4am eviction that morning this represents a radical departure from the 'softly-softly' policing that has characterized the interactions of the state with ODS to date.

Continues at http://www.wsm.ie/c/scuffles-pearse-street-garda-attack...treet

by pat c Fri Mar 09, 2012 13:37

Some letters from todays Irish Times.

Sir, – In light of the moonlit removal of the Occupy protest against the financial culprits who left half a million “disemployed” and our emigration figures locked on 70,000 per annum – while no golden handshake has been disturbed – should we rename our national holiday the Sainted Bankers’ Day?

Or do we stay as we are, and reinvent it as our sub-prime bondage tribute to St Patrick’s original arrival as a coerced slave? Or do I blaspheme? – Yours, etc,

D FLINTER,
Castleview Estate,
Headford,
Co Galway.

Sir, – Now that the Occupy Dame Street camp has been dismantled by gardaí (Breaking News, March 8th), the Central Bank plaza will be available for binge drinking ahead of the St Patrick’s Day parade.

Thank goodness for health and safety issues. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Shandon Crescent,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.

by lefty Fri Mar 09, 2012 21:37

Plenty of time on the prime time news to cover that dodgy twit Gallagher's courtcase against rte after his deservedly failed presedential bid. However when it comes to discussion of something important like the blatant usurping of democratic rights of the people using force by government and corporate attack dogs under political orders from above, there is an eerie silence.

Its time they stopped cheerleading the overthrow of middle eastern and north african governments (for america) ostensively because they were not respecting the rights of their citizens, and took a long hard look at the policing of democratic protests right here at home in dublin and in rossport.

Today a slightly shady businessman, who at least gives some decent employment faces 6 years for avoiding (albeit quite a lot of) import duty on garlic. However a 3.2 billion payment on behalf of anglo the crooked failed gambling bank will go ahead later this month. Nobody will serve a day in prison for that. Politicians involved in the bank guarantee still get pensions over 100,000 from the irish taxpayer on top of any other "bonuses" they may or may not have received from the "private banking sector". Sickening

Occupy RTE!! we do pay a licence fee after all.

Pardon me while I leave to throw up. I've accidentally caught the beginning of the late late show with the "safe and slimy" overpaid and undertalented, non threatening ryan turgidy....UGH!

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Sat Mar 10, 2012 07:07

sounds like an idea whose time has come.

This contest is about what is the public and what is the private sphere...RTE claims to be the public mediator of the populace...but like our 'democratic' machinery it has been seduced by IBEC/US Chamber of Commerce PR gurus into neo-con PD ideology by stealth, and now dispenses pap from aging adolescent choirboys who recieve their hymnsheets along with their obscene publicly funded salaries even as they abet the economic deportation and destruction of the nation, which is the people, NOT some hired accountant's (again usually on a taxpayer's publicly funded salary)assessment of GNP.

by 99% Sat Mar 10, 2012 09:48

Occupy Waterford camp cleared
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0309/....html

Gardaí cleared out the largely abandoned Occupy Waterford camp in the city this morning.

The camp had been in place since last October as part of the global anti-capitalist Occupy movement and up to 40 people were living there at its height.

However, protesters taking part in the campaign had fallen out and the camp beside the Clock Tower on the quays was mostly unoccupied in recent weeks.

According to gardaí, the only people found on site when council officials came to clear the area at 5.30am were two teenagers and a homeless man.

Occupy Galway requested to leave Eyre Square
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/101493

As you may have heard Occupy Dame Street was cleared by the Gardai at 3am this morning. Earlier today, Occupy Galway received the following letter from Galway City Council;

Adressed to "Members of Occupy Galway" "Re: Illegal encampment, Dear Sirs, I refer to previous discussions with members of your group regarding the illegal encampment at Eyre Square and to the request by an official of the council that you vacate the encampment and remove all wooden pallets and other hardware in and around the camp. I am once again formally requesting the immediate vacation of the camp and the removal of all tents, pallets and other hardware and equipment in and around Kennedy Park, Eyre Square, Galway. You encampment is a serious risk to public health and safety, both to those in occupation and to those in the vicinity.Failure to comply with this request fortwith will result in the appropriate legal action being taken against you. Yours sincerely, Ciaran Hayes Director of services"

Earlier IMC-IE feature on Irish Occupy camps:
#OccupyIreland, 6 camps and building... Dublin, Cork, Galway, Belfast, Waterford...Letterkenny.. (November 07)
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/100863

Earlier times, when Dublins 99% took to the streets... The rocky road to Dublin
http://vimeo.com/31081866

#OccupyIreland: 6 up, 1 going, 2 gone

Caption: Video Id: 31081866 Type: Vimeo
Rocky Road to Dublin

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Sat Mar 10, 2012 16:45

I've just left Eyre Square. When I arrived an elderly man was stretched on one of the stone benches having some sort of seizure....the only ones paying any attention were the Occupy people...they had him in the recovery position and had an ambulance called and were keeping him conscious and warm with a blanket from the encampment until the medics arrived.

No sign of a guard or first aid post or public representative on the public square....

Who is the threat here??The Occupy station or the general public catatonia it is trying to resuscitate?

War is Peace country.

by Mick Butler Sat Mar 10, 2012 22:47

"Occupy R T E"; Bravo, a big gathering there of Rossport campaigners and others, EG Dame St Occupy, who are having their rights shredded in the name of 'law' and our resources, natural and otherwise, as well taxable capacity being siphoned into the elite's bottomless pit.

Will we make a stand and bring the stand to Montrose ? It is long overdue, it would be novel and it would shame the people at RTE.

Shell's Law in Mayo and not a peep from Montrose but they have a self proclaimed 'standard', let us hold them to it.

BTW V Good piece on Shell Law and media blackout in current issue of The Phoenix.

by Independent Legal Observer Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:09

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How to deal with a garda thief

by Independent Legal Observer Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:12

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Occupy The Gardaí

by Anti-Fantasist Action Sun Mar 11, 2012 19:48

Moved from Galway story.

"Regarding dame street, I think you need to substantiate your claim that they were on the rocks. The facts seem to indicate otherwise. "

What facts would those be?

There were about a dozen people in the camp were the Gardai came - according to the WSM report, &reports from people on Facebook (people who would be generally supportive of ODS). The General Assemblies had pretty much stopped. To suggest that ODS wasn't in serious decline is delusional. All you had to do was walk past it to see it for yourself.

Ironically, the eviction could be the best thing to happen the Occupy 'movement', if it leads to a reassessment of it strengths/weaknesses, and where it should go.

by The Other 99 % Sun Mar 11, 2012 22:38

There are many competing constitutional rights to be considered in the Occupy Dame Street situation, the Freedom of Association, the Freedom of Expression, the Freedom to go about your business (unspecified) the Right to go to work (unspecified - under personal rights).

The Rights of Society to Safety also has to be considered. The Saint Patricks Day Parade will pass by Dame Street, attracting 500,000 approximately too central Dublin. The Occupy Camp was s possible obstruction to the spectators top the Parade, would any of the occupiers have forgiven themselves if a spectator had been injured or killed in a crush around the camp site, The Right to Life in the hierarchy of Rights is at the top, so were the Gardai right to remove the camp site following the refusal of the occupiers to move following an oral and written request.....

Now I wait to be called a blah blah blah..........................

by lefty Mon Mar 12, 2012 01:34

That has to be one of the most pathetic justifications of fascism I've ever heard.

St Patrick's day is just a one day PR event. Is that reason enough to suspend adherence to law, ride roughshod over the rights of citizens to protest and assemble in a public space, beat them, steal and damage their property.

What are our priorities here??

So gardai were physically beating people and dragging them along the ground and pushing them into bicycle racks in order to prevent anyone being hurt in a very improbable scenario on Patrick's day. Yes that's very logical.

Are protesters not people too?? Since when did exercising your democratic right to protest make you less than a human being?

by angry Mon Mar 12, 2012 15:13

Is there a protest planned for St Patrick's Day? Everyone on the left should be galvanised into a protest at the site, or at some other convenient place on the parade route. Even if they stopped the parade for a few minutes, they will have done something to stand up for themselves and sent out a signal that protest will not be silenced for the sake of tourist dollars.

If they let this slide and simply plan to resume the camp after Dublin returns to post-Paddy's Day normality, they will have confirmed their irrelevance.

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Mon Mar 12, 2012 16:03

...so my suggestion would be an assembly at St Patrick's cathedral for a public reading of it's former Dean, Swift's Modest Proposal...a short political tract issued (1729)as a vivisection of the ascendancy class and their indifference to the ocean of poverty and deprivation resulting from their economic greed. Google it for the text...unless this attempted link works.

http://www.art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

If you can get someone of prominence (Damien Dempsey?)to read it and draw some media attention...I think you might find it expresses your anger better than just standing with a placard. Dole TV should come on board....If I knew how to use this machine better I'd do a rendition meself.

Keep the cool, one way or the other this shit is only starting.

You can also point out the contradiction between the mammon-fest binge of the 'Paddy's Day' Oirish and the original man who was dragged onto this sodden sod as a slave....as we go down to the sub-prime bondage of the same market Swift so eloquently excoriates.

Either way, if you haven't yet, read the six or seven pages...I've yet to find a finer piece of writing.

Or you could Occupy ST Patricks as the London branch did St Paul's and see whether that creates a ripple. Some of the Brit clerics actually had a revival of dormant conscience, as you'll know if you've been tracking.

by serf Mon Mar 12, 2012 18:17

Brilliant idea. Occupy st patricks day media!! lets do it people. Show the world that the Irish are not rolling over completely and have some fight in them after all

by Black Flag Thu Mar 15, 2012 14:58

Irish Democracy R. I . P. Coffin and many black flags on Dame Street.

How About It ?

by Sean Collard Mon Apr 16, 2012 15:49

These guys don't know where to get off and wasting good government money and all

by Fight Capitalists, Don't Support Them. Wed Apr 25, 2012 17:16

Sadly ODS seem to have gone bonkers. They now support the wealthy. To quote an ODS member: One protester, Seán Ryan, said the number of homes the couple owned was “irrelevant”.

Sympathy came from an unlikely source yesterday when members of the Occupy Dame Street movement visited the house to express their solidarity with the couple.

Mrs Kelly thanked the protesters, who said they would offer every assistance to her and to anybody else who found themselves in danger of eviction.

One protester, Seán Ryan, said the number of homes the couple owned was “irrelevant”.

“Do we define these people by their net worth?” he asked.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2012/0421....html

ODS was never prepared to define itself as anti-Capitalist but to now support a couple who own 21 properties in Ireland and 13 in London suggests that they have moved to the right. You are either on the side of the Rich or the ordinary people. Looks as if ODS have chosen their side. Thats what happens when you isolate yourself from the rest of the activist movement.

ODS could learn some lessons from Occupy Galway on the importance of co-operation and solidarity.

by lefty Thu Apr 26, 2012 04:22

Yes this was a bad decision by ODS
IMHO This couple were gombeens and part of the whole problem.