Softly, softly as gardai: conduct without the use of batons
Friday May 10 2002
Fears that a hooligan element might try to hijack the event proved unfounded and gardai who adopted a softly softly approach to policing the event said it had been trouble free, with no arrests.
Protestors began assembling outside Pearse Street garda station shortly before 6pm but by the time they had moved on to Dame Street, the numbers taking part had swelled from an initial 600 to about 2,500.
Traffic disruption was minimal, with cars diverted from Pearse Street to Tara Street during the hour-long demonstration outside the garda station.
A total of 40 uniformed gardai were on duty but many remained in the background, with others on standby in the event of trouble.
Just 17 uniformed officers took up position outside the garda station and the squad cars which are usually parked outside it had been removed and crash barriers erected.
Batons were kept firmly concealed and before going on duty, officers had been briefed on the importance of maintaining law and order at the same time as adopting a softly, softly approach to ensuring that the protests passed off without incident.
"Hugs not Thugs," read one of the many hand-drawn signs held up by protestors. "No police brutality," read another.
The crowd was from all walks of life students, socialists, members of Globalise Resistance, the Reclaim the Streets movement and several well-known civil liberties activists.
As the speeches began, a handful of students across the road, hanging out the windows of Trinity College, craned their necks to listen.
The presence of gardai photographing the crowd from the windows of Pearse Street station did not escape the notice of several protestors, who shouted "Spooks" and "Say Cheese."
Among the speakers was Trinity College, Dublin law lecturer Ivana Bacik, who accused the gardai of "abusing their extensive powers" under the Public Order legislation, acting to scare people from going out on demonstrations and exercising their civil liberties.
"The mask has slipped. The world has seen the real face of the Garda Siochana in this city," Sinn Fein election candidate, Daithi Doolan told the crowd. Supt Tom Conway of Pearse Street Station afterwards said there had been no arrests and the event had "gone very well from a policing point of view." He said that unlike Monday, gardai had been assisted last night in having a liaison person among the organisers, whom they could consult.
Gardai continued to adopt a low key approach as the rally moved from Pearse Street station past Trinity College and into Dame Street. Unformed officers, all with identity numbers firmly in place, walked casually alongside and behind the march, with senior men in front.
The rally broke up at the Civic Offices, at about eight o'clock.
- Eugene Moloney and Nicola Anderson
