Sir, - Allow me to suggest that one of the most significant events during Clinton's visit was the one reported near the bottom of page nine on your edition of last Saturday. I refer to the incident in which a garda sergeant told a man in the crowd at Stephen's Green to take down a placard he was holding up which was critical of US foreign policy "or we will take it down for you".
In the light of the recent Dail debate on "Draconian" security measures it is appropriate to remember the debate on the Public Order Bill, whose supporters scoffed at the fear of it being used to stifle civil protest and assured us it was necessary to allow gardai to protect themselves against mobs wielding baseball bats and hurling concrete blocks. Lately we have heard stories on the radio of it being used against people enjoying the crack strolling home from the pub and recently a press photographer was arrested while waiting to photograph a public figure at the centre of a serious news story. The alleged reason was that his presence upset the man's wife. I would like to have seen the same courtesy extended to Mrs Clinton, but then arresting the US press corps is not as easy to get away with.
The incident on Friday with the man's placard is noteworthy, not because it happened but because a Garda sergeant (under instructions, presumably) thought it was his job to remove the placard rather than to defend the man's right to hold it and also because we will not hear a whisper about this from any of our elected representatives, either in the Dail or on Questions and Answers. Yet if the incident had happened in the Soviet Union a few years ago it would have been held up as an example of state oppression, totalitarianism, censorship, etc.
At this delicate point in the peace process, with eyes in both camps watching to see how this State deals with diverse political views and civil rights, I think it would be good if the Minister for Justice would outline exactly what freedoms of speech and peaceful protest exist in the State and whether they are privileges that can be withdrawn on a whim or sacred rights that have the protection of the law. Two hundred years after 1798, what price political freedom in Ireland? - Yours, etc., Sean Doocey,
Celbridge, Co Kildare.