One of the main organisers of the Anti-War Coalition in Ireland was arrested during a protest today outside the American Embassy in Dublin.

He was at the front of the demonstration as it was leaving the American Embassy to head for the British Embassy. The police were trying to break up the demonstration before it moved on. Another person was also arrested. The demo of around 300 defied the police and continued first to the British Embassy and then on to the cop-shop where the arrestees were being held. They have now been released after being charged with public order offences.

Snatch squad style arrests have now taken place at three demonstrations in Ireland in the last month. Those targeted for arrests have all been organisers, people who are highly visible at demonstrations here and people attempting to film arrests and over the top police tactics (batoning people indulging in 'threatening' activity such as sitting down and refusing to be moved on). We are in for a long autumn of court cases in the Dublin Courts as all those arrested in the last month are feeling defiant about this obviously highly organised crackdown on protest here.
The events at Car Free Day, The PPP meeting and today's Anti War demo are unusual for Ireland as protest is usually tolerated to a reasonable extent here.