A Reclaim the Streets party attended by several hundred people in Dublin city centre is passing off without incident this afternoon.
Several hundred party-goers gathered on O'Connell Street in the city centre, dancing to a percussion band and waving flags and banners. They have now congregated at the junction of Talbot Street and Gardiner Street.
The event follows a confrontation between hundreds of gardaí and several thousand protestors outside the Phoenix Park on Saturday night, during which 28 people were arrested.
The leaders of the 25 states of the European Union were holding a celebratory dinner in Farmleigh House following the accession of ten new states.
Riot police baton charged protestors and gardaí deployed water cannon borrowed from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Twenty-three people appeared before a special sitting of Clover Hill District Court yesterday charged with minor offences.
One of the protest's organising groups, Dublin Grassroots Network (DGN), claimed today injured protestors were denied entry to the Mater Hospital by gardai. They said a number of protestor had received serious injuries at the hands of riot police, including a broken leg, a broken arm, a broken wrist and a number of cuts and head injuries. One woman was also knocked unconscious by the water cannon, they claimed.
One Garda was injured and taken to hospital with minor injuries. She was later released.
Mr Richard Boyd-Barrett, spokesman for the Irish Anti-War Movement, said today the Garda reaction was over the top and unnecessary. "The vast majority of people involved in protests this weekend have been peaceful," he said. "I was there on Saturday and there were just minor scuffles, no riots.
"The gardai were very obviously looking for the slightest opportunity to use the water cannon and justify their completely unnecessary security operation."
Mr Rory Hearn, a spokesman for the Another Europe Is Possible organisation, said that Reclaim the Streets parties were peaceful and fun protests.
"Gardaí and the media attempt to portray the movement as one of violence and with no purpose but the reality is that we are taking to the streets to show concern for the way Europe and the world is going," he said. "It's clear that when people talk about apathy they are not looking to groups like this who are taking to the streets and being politically active. A massive police presence does nothing except provoke increased tensions and antagonism."
Yesterday, the DGN blamed the Government and the Garda for the disturbances, accusing both of stoking up tensions in the run up to May Day. In a statement the DGN also said the reaction of the gardaí to "isolated pushing and shoving" was totally unnecessary as there was "never any chance that the crowd would break through police lines".
The Taoiseach Mr Ahern commended the Garda handling of the disturbances, saying that while he was disappointed the disturbances took place he was "happy with the way the Garda Siochána have handled the situation".
Superintendent John Farrelly also defended the handling of the trouble. "We had a job to do," he said. "The job we had to do was to protect society, to protect the people in the park and the situation was that has been achieved.