HARRIS: WE PREVENTED GRAFTON ST STAMPEDE

GARDA Commissioner Drew Harris has defended the force’s clashes with anti-mask protesters after they prevented a‘ frightening stampede up Grafton Street’.

Eleven people were arrested for public order offences following a largescale protest in Dublin city centre on Thursday.

A Garda investigation has been launched to find the organiser of the event, which saw hundreds of people march from O’Connell Bridge to East Wall Road before moving on to Grafton Street.

Members of the Garda Public Order Unit were deployed in ‘ soft cap’ mode in support of uniform colleagues. Of those arrested, nine people were charged with public order offences, while two protesters were given ‘adult cautions’.

Speaking at a media briefing on the Garda’s policing plan for Level 5 yesterday, Commissioner Harris denied gardaí had been ‘heavy-handed’.

He noted that under Covid-19 regulations, organisers of large-scale events can be punished. The issue, Commissioner Harris explained, is that it is often unclear who the organisers of such events are.

‘ With these protests, there is no organiser,’ he noted. ‘ What we see is covert arranging of protests. We have no one to negotiate with and their actual protest outcomes are not lawful purposes for their activity.

‘ Regrettably, t hese groups have shown a propensity to violence. All of these matters are matters which move it from the policing of the Covid-19 restrictions into public order legislation.’

He added: ‘[At Thursday’s protest] we used public order legislation to prevent what would have been a very frightening stampede up Grafton Street. That is a tight enough pedestrian street and that can’t be allowed to happen. There was no heavy-handedness on our part. Our response was proportionate to what we thought were the public order threats.’

Commissioner Harris went on to say it is often hard to t ell f ar- r i ght groups apart at these protests, as ‘they all seem to have the same views’.

He noted that it appears the groups’ aims are to disrupt ‘the activity of the Government [and] Government departments’.

‘No heavy handedness’