Eleven people have been arrested and a number of others fined for failing to comply with public health guidelines at an anti-lockdown protest in Dublin, gardai said.
Up to 150 anti-lockdown demonstrators marched through Dublin on Saturday over the ongoing country-wide restrictions.
In a statement gardaí said a group of protestors, who initially gathered at the Wellington Monument in the Phoenix Park at around 2pm, then marched to the city centre where the arrests were made for “persistent and ongoing non-compliance with public health regulations”.
Having quietly monitored the gathering in the Phoenix Park during the afternoon, and flanking the protesters as they walked to and from the GPO, gardaí then cordoned off the protesters as they returned along Victoria Quay.
Gardaí used prison-style vans and uniformed officers to block the east and west ends of the quay, leaving the protestors trapped. Some protestors sat on the road, while others attempted to push through the Garda lines.
The Garda press office later said a force of about 300 gardaí were involved in the policing operation, including public order units, a peaceful crowd-management unit, the Garda mounted unit and the Garda dog unit.
Gardaí said they are investigating the organising of the event. Organised demonstrations are banned under the current regulations. They also said that a number of Fixed Payment Notices (FPNs) will be issued to people who attended the event.
Organisers
Earlier, as an estimated 200 anti-lockdown protesters gathered in the Phoenix Park, nobody to whom The Irish Times spoke would acknowledge organising the protest.
Unusually, those who took part made no speeches, either in the park or at the GPO.
From 2pm small groups of people congregated at the monument, some carrying national flags and others with posters bearing slogans such as “coming soon - Nuremberg 2.0”, coupled with sporadic chants of “end the lockdown”.
Few of the protesters in the park seemed to be wearing a face mask and the only social distancing in the park among the protestersappeared to be the distance between small groups of participants. Many of the participants were young people, some with children in buggies.
One man waved a flag with the words “liberty or death”, while another placard read “tests lie”. One protester had a sheet wrapped around her, bearing the words: “facts not fears” and “respect human rights”.
A man with a microphone in the back pocket of his jeans said there were no organisers. The gathering had been a spontaneous rising of people via social media, he said.
Asked if he was going to make a speech, the man said no. Asked about the speakers and microphone, he said he might sing a song later.
Gardaí who were present, wearing face masks and keeping a social distance, engaged in good-natured exchanges of views with the protesters while in the park.
Photocopied booklets
A woman handed out leaflets which read “Covid-19 mRNA vaccines are gene therapy”. She also passed out photocopied booklets in which it was claimed the population had “been tricked into a global scam”.
Much of the booklet appeared to contain summaries and headlines of newspaper articles with anti-vaccine messaging. The woman said she was not an organiser of the protest.
A man carrying a placard which read “vakcina macht frei” said the words meant “vaccines set you free”.
It was, he said, a pun on the wording “arbeit macht frei”, which is written above the entrance to Auschwitz concentration camp.
Asked if this was not what most people were hoping for, for vaccines to liberate people from Covid-19, the man said this reporter was “not understanding” properly.
Nearby a young man walked up the steep steps of the Wellington Monument with a green flag wrapped around his shoulders bearing the words “Irish Republic”.
At the top of the steps two men were organising a banner with Tricolours drawn on it and the words: “reclaiming our sovereignty”.
