Where DOES socialist TD Paul Murphy spend his Valentine’s Day?
IT WAS Valentine’s Day, the sun was shining, and Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy clearly wanted to treat his girlfriend to something really special.
So the old romantic whisked her off to Tallaght Garda station in west Dublin for an anti-water charges protest.
The station was targeted because of the arrest this week of 20 protesters alleged to have been involved in trapping Joan Burton in her car in Tallaght in November.
It’s not a Valentine’s outing that most women would have embraced, but Farah Mokhtareizadeh looked blissfully happy as she gazed into Murphy’s eyes at the rally.
Ms Mokhtareizadehis a lecturer in Trinity College, having previ- ously studied for a PhD in religious studies at the university.
And that wasn’t the only treat, as she also got to enjoy him addressing the crowd in a speech in which he accused gardaí of ‘political policing’. Murphy had spent some time in another Garda station at the start of the week as he was one of those arrested.
Gardaí arrested him in a dawn raid on his home on Monday.
About 500 water protesters marched on Tallaght Garda Station from Jobstown before moving on to the Civic Theatre chanting: ‘No way, we won’t pay.’
Murphy had complained that he and other protesters could have been notified in advance and arranged a time to attend the station for questioning, and that the dawn arrest was unnecessary. But security sources this weekend hit back at Murphy’s claims of politicised policing, and told the Irish Mail on Sunday what happened was standard procedure.
‘This involved a number of suspects being arrested and questioned over the same incident.
‘The gardaí could not allow a situation where they could have swapped notes ahead of an arrest and, in turn, jeopardise the integrity of the investigation.’
Sources say advance notification of arrest was not possible.
‘You are also dealing with people who organise and attend demonstrations all the time. The gardaí could also not allow for an organised crowd outside a Garda station by organising the arrest in advance. They would have to put in place measures to police that, on top of planning for the arrest itself.’
Mr Murphy and his girlfriend lis- tened to 16-year-old Jason Lester tell the crowd that he should have been in school when he was in a cell on Tuesday. He was one of a number of teenagers taken into custody for their part in protests that trapped-Tánaiste Joan Burton in her car for more than two hours.
All 20 were released without charge. A file is being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.