hey are there any youngISH ppl going ? i want to but ive noone to go with,my friends are more likely to be police officers arresting us than going for the fun... :( so as it is ive no1 to go with and am a bit too shy and intimidated to go on my own y'know! i like to think im a pretty cool person and have crazy music taste and spirit full of revolution!!
so anyway mail me or something ppl x

I seen the flyers during the week, loved the idea and had the day free so myself and a few mates met up to check out the party. now we came as very much outsiders to the scene, i ain't a veggie, i dont have dreads,and even had the awdasity to be wearing nike, we were more observers initually.
the vibe was friendly, everyone: young, old,hippie and carnivour united in pursuit of a good time on a street (what a crime).

anyhow we follow the march to dame st., continuing on down to college green.

i then saw gardai beating on someone, surronding him as he lay on the ground in foetal positon, not in any state to be offensive and they continue beating.

Next thing i look to my left and my mate has run into the mix to try and help this poor guy, now he isnt being aggresive at this point, just shouting at the gards to stop, he gets clobbered(blood spouting from head- many stiches required), i then run into help him with my hands up in a defensive gesture and whilst trying to get my friend out of this battle ground i get clobbered (arm and leg ,some heavy bruising).

the gardi were swinging arbitraraly, they didnt size anyone up,just random swings. they were like animals or pro wrestlers: all seemed high on this rampage

i have just read a report in the irish independent online which described the crowd as nasty and violent,this crowd was the furthest possible adjective away from the above description, the gardai obviouly got the go ahead to "put manners on these hippies", and once that was given the young lads straight out of templemore went out to acheive maximum bragging rights back at the station.

with my friend bleeding heavily we showed the gardai what they had done, i showed it to there cheif and not one face of remorse did i see, it was the gardai who deserve the nasty and violent tag: as the gards attacked the crowd responded with chants of "peacful protest, peaceful protest", they continued to swing and we continued to sing.

we looked for the badge numbers but noticed that these had been taken off. this brutality musy be accounted for, there were many cameras(both still and dv) in the area and hundreds of witness's. they cant get away with this or this method of treatment will continue and even escalate, these video tapes must be sourced and compiled.

i never really had a probelm with the gardai b4 today, i always thought ya know dirty job but somone has to do,my ex girlfriend dad is a gard and a gentleman.
but when i think of the random beating they gave to innocent folk looking to smile on a sunny day in town, it really worries me.
anyhow i gotta have a bath and rest these sores, and consider the future of my nike bottoms.
keep the peace
turferino

Turferino is wrong in his comments about the Irish Indepedent, maybe he was reading a different one to me. The report was spot on the pictures say the most, particularly the one of the bike cop holding a bloke by the throat. The photographer who took was then surroudn by other cops and was arrested but managed to hang onto his film and get it to print on time. This time around the papers and the fone shows have done a good job so don't knock it. If the cops who are violent are to be caught it won't be done though generalisations. Fair play to Peter Sweetman who spoke about what he saw on Morning Ireland about the three girls being kicked.

How's it going every1? i hope those who had been assaulted by the Gards yesterday are feeling ok today. I was in at the protest yesterday and it was a (as the flyers put it) 'a party with a purpose'. For a good couple of hours the gards stood at both ends of Burgh Quay not being able to do anything because it was a good natured, fun party on the street.

About 100 yards along Dame St. i saw the gards pull out their batons and hit un-armed, peaceful protesting people. It was the scariest thing that i have ever seen in my live.

i noticed something else about yesterdays assaults; some gards were not wearing their identity numbers so that they could not be identified if, as many have and will do, wanted to make a complaint. also there were some bike gards who must have forgotten that they were walking because they still had their helmets on...how convenient??
I am sure that there are some very nice police officers but what i saw yesterday has made me think about how i class the Gards as a whole and i have to say it's with little or no respect.

How's it going every1? i hope those who had been assaulted by the Gards yesterday are feeling ok today. I was in at the protest yesterday and it was a (as the flyers put it) 'a party with a purpose'. For a good couple of hours the gards stood at both ends of Burgh Quay not being able to do anything because it was a good natured, fun party on the street.

About 100 yards along Dame St. i saw the gards pull out their batons and hit un-armed, peaceful protesting people. It was the scariest thing that i have ever seen in my live.

i noticed something else about yesterdays assaults; some gards were not wearing their identity numbers so that they could not be identified if, as many have and will do, wanted to make a complaint. also there were some bike gards who must have forgotten that they were walking because they still had their helmets on...how convenient??
I am sure that there are some very nice police officers but what i saw yesterday has made me think about how i class the Gards as a whole and i have to say it's with little or no respect.

I was visiting my brother for the weekend had great fun, great weather. Went to the International Disobedience day had great fun just lazing in the park a few gards nothing much.
Was going back Mon on the 4pm Bus to Galway so I thought I'd head along to this thing with my brother and several friends.
My brother told me that the gards MIGHT block off the streets making it hard for me to get through to the bus stop but he then said he was probably being paranoid.
We got to the garden of rememberence at 1:55 and there were only 5 people there, thought it might be a bust but at 2pm about 10-20 people showed up at once with more gradually coming in.
The cyclists set off at 2:20 down O'Connell street. We followed waving our paper flags we'd made earlier. (if anyone saw the "I saw a squirrel" one that was us :) ) The cyclists headed off a side street so we just went down to the GPO. Noticed a few garda vans and officers standing around chatting. Had fun watching the women dancing (and also a 5 y/o girl :) ) with their swirly things. then around 2:40 the cyclists came up from the quay and we were told to follow the four people with the flags. We did and had great fun running past these shocked gardai down into Burgh quay. From then until I left around 3:40 it was just great craic, We planted our weed plants in the garden and went down danicng around the farther set of drums. Both sides of the road had gards standing there only around 4-5 at the East end and a side street was blocked off too.
As I said I left at 3:40 and the last thing I saw was from the bus everyone dancing having fun.

At around 8:30pm my sister called from the dart station and said that her boyfriend told her to leave the city centre. She'd been working and was about to go to the party. He said that he'd been beaten up by several gardai. He'd just been trying to get in touch with my brother he'd only been walking through it when the gards attacked him.
That was all my sister knew she was heading out to Darthy ( or some place ) and said she'd ring us back.
We got in touch with my brothers girlfriend who said that she'd left earlier and was at her mothers. She was as shocked to hear about it as we obviously were.
We eventually got in touch with my brother who had himself been hit several times. They had gone down to the Pearse street gard station to lodge complaints and were told that they'd have to wait until the Sergeant arrived. Needless to say the sergeant (who is supposed to constantly be on duty ) never arrived. All the grada stations across Dublin were giving out the same message to anyone who wanted to complain.
My brothers friend then did a hand stand in the Gard station. a grad came up to him and struck him hard across his legs knocking him to the floor.
My brother had actually seen a Gard strip off his ID no. then go in and puch a 15 y/o girl right in the face. Completely unprovoked.
Everything else I've heard about this has been from the news. I was surprised to find that there was not even a mention of this in the 9:00 news yesterday and when the news item eventually appeared on Aertel it only had the official Garda statement.

namae, its you who should check your facts b4 you print.
re read my piece it says irish independent on-line, thats on the net, not in the daily paper and that was their first report which i read when i got back from the casualty ward.
apolegy expected,
turf

When an organisation that claims to be "reclaiming the streets" organises what it describes as a demonstration over the disappearance of open areas, one would expect that what was always going to be a protest, that it would be done in a proper manner. By that I mean informing people that it would be a protest quite openly. Instead it was spread around via underground channels, stickers around certain parts of town, not contact details, etc.

In this regard, you can only expect to get a certain level of people turning up for curiosity's sake and, it being Dublin and a Bank Holiday, a number of people intent on causing trouble!

I'm not denying that a few gardai more than likely went in heavy handed, but at a time when 2 have been killed in a joy-riding incident and another thrown 30 feet in the air by a car, you can only expect that they are going to clamp down.
So far the only coverage that people are seeing is coverage provided by IndyMedia, and no offence, but you are hardly likely to be showing any other view than that which suits you.

Somebody please explain to me why you people felt you could take over a ‘main’ street without any consequences? Why should Joe Tax payer have to suffer a load of crusty denying them the right to free movement? Judging by what is written here, some of you were not hit hard enough. ‘We planted our weed plants in the garde ‘, ‘We did and had great fun running past these shocked gardai down into Burgh quay’.
Do I really need to say anything to point out the extreme immaturity here. You all act like a bunch of half-wits, than get the crap beaten out of you and to add insult to injury you blame other people? Are any of you responsible for anything?

'You people' who took part in this event are also Joe Taxpayers. I am a Joe Taxpayer, but one who didn't take part in this event. However I have respect for people who get off their holes and bring awareness to the choking of our city by privately owned pieces of shite. These car owners will never get the lumps kicked out of them but spend every other day of the year on their contented lard asses, speeding through the city centre, getting in a strop if some leper takes too long crossing at the lights.

Think about it. What are the streets (particularly urban centre streets)? Should they be renamed car streets? Are you only allowed mow your way along them if you're sitting comfortably in a turquoise fucking Yaris? To give precedence to one person over another, simply because they are in an automobile is nonsense. The city centre streets are everyones. You can safely bet that the vast majority of vehicles passing down Dame street on Bank holiday Monday were not making deliveries, carrying vital organs to a hospital or were city centre residents. The vast majority of these vehicles were being vacantly driven by assholes who think it's their God given right to wank about in their hard earned tanks.

It's blindingly obvious that the automobile is essential today, and will be around for a long time yet. However it's the way in which it's being utilised that's causing the problem. We have to be more critical about it's use. At the moment it's just a car free for all out there, and everyone else can just fuck off. Our city streets are for all of us, not simply those who lazily choose, or can afford, a car. We are pretty much all Joe Taxpayers, Kevin. We have all contributed to the growth and development of our city. We all like to shop, congregate, socialise, and many live, in these urban centres. It is not right for a minority of (out of town) car owners to boss our streets.

So shut your whinging tax-paying hole Kevin. We all pay tax, moron. But some of us want a better quality of life, one perhaps that doesn't revolve around the fucking car. No-one 'took over' the streets on Monday, you myopic, non-critical, indignant twat. Our city streets are our own.

'You people' who took part in this event are also Joe Taxpayers. I am a Joe Taxpayer, but one who didn't take part in this event. However I have respect for people who get off their holes and bring awareness to the choking of our city by privately owned pieces of shite. These car owners will never get the lumps kicked out of them but spend every other day of the year on their contented lard asses, speeding through the city centre, getting in a strop if some leper takes too long crossing at the lights.

Think about it. What are the streets (particularly urban centre streets)? Should they be renamed car streets? Are you only allowed mow your way along them if you're sitting comfortably in a turquoise fucking Yaris? To give precedence to one person over another, simply because they are in an automobile is nonsense. The city centre streets are everyones. You can safely bet that the vast majority of vehicles passing down Dame street on Bank holiday Monday were not making deliveries, carrying vital organs to a hospital or were city centre residents. The vast majority of these vehicles were being vacantly driven by assholes who think it's their God given right to wank about in their hard earned tanks.

It's blindingly obvious that the automobile is essential today, and will be around for a long time yet. However it's the way in which it's being utilised that's causing the problem. We have to be more critical about it's use. At the moment it's just a car free for all out there, and everyone else can just fuck off. Our city streets are for all of us, not simply those who lazily choose, or can afford, a car. We are pretty much all Joe Taxpayers, Kevin. We have all contributed to the growth and development of our city. We all like to shop, congregate, socialise, and many live, in these urban centres. It is not right for a minority of (out of town) car owners to boss our streets.

So shut your whinging tax-paying hole Kevin. We all pay tax, moron. But some of us want a better quality of life, one perhaps that doesn't revolve around the fucking car. No-one 'took over' the streets on Monday, you myopic, non-critical, indignant twat. Our city streets are our own.

Turferino Sorry
You are right. I missed that. Sorry, its the old lysdexia

I know that Ireland is not used to having protests/street celebrations of this kind but in the event of any protest, football match, concert or any event that involves crowd control, as a civilian, I would think that Gardai are trained for these situations and briefed on what is likely to happen.
It is in the public interest that the Gardai research the expectations of the event - to know where the protest is happening, to have an estimate of the number of people expected to attend, events planned during the march, etc.

Seeing the footage on the news last night (RTE1 Tue, 7th May) really did frighten me. It seemed to me that the Gardai were completely unaware of the type of protest it was and over-reacted in an unnecessarily violent manner. There have been many examples of "Reclaim the Streets" parties from other cities around the world and it is well known that part of these protests is to block the streets. The very name of the protest suggests it. I presumed that the Gardai would have expected it - apparently not.
It appeared to me that it was the Gardai and not the protesters who were anyway out of control. I guess I'm referring to the Garda, pictured on today's Irish Times web-site, without his number and jacket, who was also shown on the news.

I have always respected the Gardai and have always defended them when others would have criticised them. This is the first time that I find it very hard to justify their actions. Having said that, not all Gardai who were present are responsible for their colleagues actions - people should remember that. There were Gardai present who were restraining other Gardai from attacking individuals, acting as true Guardians of the Peace, Gardai Siochana.
Let the people who are responsible for Garda training and events security stand up and explain how this got out of control. Let them publicise the preparations they took and orders that were given to the Gardai on duty. And let us see those who acted unprofessionally rightfully reprimanded.

In response to Kev's comments, this is not the first time streets have been blocked by protesters. Farmers, taximen, lorry drivers and many others have done the same in the past, for their own interests, thus denying people like yourself "the right to free movement". On any given Friday evening during "rush-hour", a misnomer by todays standards, your "right to free movement" is denied. One of the the main objectives of "Reclaim the Streets" protests is to emphasise the overuse of cars and how the streets are choked with traffic and pollution because of them. As a tax payer myself, I have no problem with a protest blocking the streets for a few hours (especilly on a bank holiday) to emphasise a problem that affects everybody, including yourself. I find your attitude ignorant, your tone offensive and your comments generally unconstructive.

When I said taxpayer, I was referring to those who pay ‘road tax’, that is the tax that pays for the roads? Paid by car users. That’s why there is tarmac on roads and not mud. I was not referring to you and the VAT.

It is not the fact that cars are on the street that bother you, you seem more upset that they are ‘privately owned’. Traffic congestion is a big problem, and I would be one of the first to agree with you on that. I would of course like to see more bus bring people in to the city center with more ‘pedestrian streets’.

we give ‘precedence to one person over another, simply because they are in an automobile' because you running in to a car will not hurt as much as a car running in to you.

I am thinking about it. “What are streets?” a street comprises of a road, for cars and buses and bikes ( motorized and man powered), a Foot path ( for people to walk on) and buildings which face the street.

So there we have it Paul/Moo, a breakdown of a street. But you were not ‘reclaiming the foot path’, but the road. as for ‘safely betting no vital organs are trying to get through’, do people not need emergency services on bank holidays, death takes a holiday also does he?? You have no idea why people were using the road that day, it could have been an emergency for them. Some could have been going shopping, meeting friends, or god forbid they might have been going for a drive. The point is they just wanted to go about their business.

‘The vast majority of these vehicles were being vacantly driven by assholes who think it's their God given right to wank about in their hard earned tanks’. Chill man. You are to easy a target. But one more thing, 'no one took over the streets' because the garda stopped you?

To PurpleDot, thank you for educating me. I was ignorant to this protest aims. But I don’t agree with them.

First thing first, can we just get this whole tax lark thing out of the way. It's starting to grate, the
incessant, indignant chant of motorists, we pay road tax, so these are our roads. Just give it up. Road tax only subsidises construction and mainteanance. Non-drivers are very much contributing to motorways. It's everyones country, cities and towns. We are all paying for it. Its not being carved up pro rata due to taxes paid. Don't insist on grabbing it all because you've paid for 20 yards
of Tarmac.

Admittedly, I'm not a huge car fan. I'm simply not that interested in them. I don't care about them. But obviously they're here to stay, and, to many people, are indispensable. Fine. But there is simply an attitude prevailing in which they are completely taken for granted, only discussed when people can't drive to work on time, because of in cars in their way. I don't have a problem with private ownership. It simply seems that owning a car places you at the top of some movement hierarchy. Its a contented attitude which has evolved and now reached a point were it must be questioned and critiqued. Can we please snap out of this car culture apathy. Reclaim the street 'crusties', as you call them, are simply being demonstrative. There is nothing crusty about this legitimate debate.

The simple fact of the matter is, that CITY CENTRE STREETS, (note capitals Kev), should be for the pleasure of the walking individual. Not for twats out for a drive. Stop treating the city centre as a through-way. I don't give a bollox if someone wants to go for a Sunday drive. Let them. But can we please decide that that should be confined to the thousands of open square miles of countryside, and if they want to view Dame Street or the city centre they could, 'God forbid', get out of their poxy cars and walk.

And I never stated that we should have the choice and freedom to arbitrarily lope around motorways. Its ridiculous that you'de elucidate that suggestion from my previous comments.

City/town centres, high population density areas, recreation areas, should put the pedestrian first, then try and fit the car around that. Understood. You even said yourself you want to see 'the city centre with more ‘pedestrian streets’'. Good. Cars ploughing through Dublin's centre do not add to it's character. So what really is your gripe? The 'half-wits' mentioned in your original posting? A demonstration or rally of this liberal nature is always going to consist of a large cross section of our nation. A few hash fiends planting marijuana plants isn't going to result in the fall of civilisation. Giddy plonkers cycling past shocked Gardaí? Half-wits maybe, but suggesting that these harmless folk should have been hit harder? Big man. And of course there were trouble makers. It happens. Let the Gardaí sort them out. Legitimate demonstrators don't want them either. But Jesus, just because cars were denied a few hours wank time in the city centre because of a timely, legitimate rally, there's no need to get the Doc Martens out. All that was being fundamentally suggested, was the possibility we could live in a safe, clean urban space. I wasn't even at the bloody thing. But regards to the half-wits and many other sound minded people who did attend.

Hmm... the web address at the foot of 'Kev's' first posting, www.dontsmoke.com, seems to be a site dedicated to resources to help people quit the smokes.

Anyway, the following entry appears in the comments page on that site:


Well...thanks but no thanks! I came looking for support in my attempt to stop smoking and find a web site featuring a major rip-off. I bought the 108 piece 4mg nicorette gum in my local grocery store last night for $53.00....yeah...the same one offered via your website for $269.99!! And that's a savings??? What jerks.


There's also a link exhorting us to "Also visit www.GodsUniverse.com" (which is exactly as it sounds).

I don't want to be the same as 'Kev' and make generalisations about people based on their business or personal practices or beliefs, so I'm just presenting these bits of information without comment. Infer from them what you will.

when will you soapdodgers grow up and join the real world.the world of oppurtunity for all,the only thing you have to fear is your own laziness.
god bless capitalism
god bless the queen