Highly organised and masked members of the May Day protest in Dublin this year used drunken people at the front of their march to help break down a garda cordon, a court heard today.
The evidence was given by gardai during the trial of two men charged with public order offences arising out of the protest.
Mr Conor Lynch (23), Tybroughney, Piltown, Co. Kilkenny, and Mr David McNamara (24), Ashfield, Old Portmarnock, Dublin, both deny breach of the peace.
Mr Lynch also denies disobeying a garda instruction to leave the area. The case was part heard today in Dublin District Court and was adjourned until next Wednesday for the showing of garda video shot on the day and for the evidence of arresting officers.
The court heard the protest made its way from O'Connell Street to the Navan Road initially in a relatively good humoured fashion. Along the way, officers observed a lot of drinking and drunken activity and by the time it reached the Ashtown Roundabout, where the garda line was in place, it had turned very tense.
Bottles and rocks were thrown at gardai who had formed a three-deep human barrier to prevent protestors gaining access to the Phoenix Park and Farmleigh House where EU heads of state were gathered for the accession of new states ceremonies.
The gardai were also placed at this point because there was a heliport just inside the Ashtown Gate and the nearby M50 motorway had to be protected.
Assistant Commissioner Al McHugh, then a Chief Superintendent, said he observed men in black ski masks use flagpoles to try to drive a wedge in the garda line.
A lawyer for both men said they wished to dissociate themselves from the clearly "outrageous" behaviour that occurred on that day. The case resumes on September 29th.