Jailed protester on hunger strike
As thousands join Dublin rally, activist who shouted abuse at President joins fellow anti-water charges inmate in refusing food till they are freed
THE man who called President Michael D Higgins a ‘midget parasite’ has gone on hunger strike in Wheatfield Prison as thousands marched in Dublin to demand the release of the five jailed anti-water charge protesters.
Derek Byrne and fellow protester Paul ‘Ollie’ Moore, who were jailed on Friday for breaking a court injunction against blocking meter installations, say they will refuse to eat until they are released.
At a rally outside Mountjoy Jail yesterday, AntiAusterity Alliance TD Paul Murphy declared: ‘This is war,’ while addressing the crowd of up to 10,000 who had gathered to demand the release of the prisoners.
Separately, almost 200 anti-water charge protesters gathered in another demonstration outside the Fine Gael National Conference in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, yesterday afternoon.
In Dublin, the crowd gathered at Central Bank on Dame Street where a number of people made speeches attacking ‘political policing’ and the jailing of five anti-water charge protesters.
Jason Lester, 16, spoke of how he was arrested for taking part in the protest in Jobstown when Tánaiste Joan Burton was trapped in her car for two hours.
‘A guard said he would put it to me that I was the ringleader because I had a loudspeaker,’ he said.
The families of the jailed protesters then led the crowd down O’Connell Street towards Mountjoy Jail on the northside.
A banner at the front of the march read: ‘ Edenmore Says No to Water Charges – Shove Your Injunction Up Your A***.’
The crowd chanted ‘Free the five, free the five’ as they made their way down the street.
They pointed and chanted ‘Shame, shame, shame on you,’ as they passed gardaí who were controlling traffic.
Loud jeers of ‘traitors’ and ‘cowards’ were also directed at gardaí along O’Connell Street.
The crowd gathered outside the prison gates as protest music blared in the street, including Get Up, Stand Up, by Bob Marley, Something Inside So Strong, by Labi Siffre and If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next by the Manic Street Preachers.
The protesters were then addressed from a small stage and told that Byrne and Moore had been on hunger strike since Friday.
A note from Byrne was read out in which he vowed to stop drinking fluids from today until he is released. He also called on protesters to hold ‘peaceful candlelit vigils’ outside politicians’ homes.
Jessica Hughes, daughter of jailed protester Bernie Hughes, said her mother was not a criminal.
‘The problem for the Government is that we are peaceful; we’re not wrecking the place and that’s why we are winning,’ she said.
Ms Hughes said her mother was in ‘great spirits’ and would be listening to the protest from within the prison.
‘I’m proud of my ma; she’s an absolute legend,’ she said.
Mr Murphy, who repeatedly referred to the crowd as comrades, told the protesters: ‘This is war.’
He said the Government had the gardaí, the courts and the Late Late Show on their side, but proclaimed: ‘We will win.’
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, Mr Murphy explained that he felt Ryan Tubridy had been unfair in the way he handled his interview on Friday night.
‘I thought the line of questioning was unfair. They played a clip of a protest that had nothing to do with me and tried to link it to me and Jobstown. I felt that was unfair.
‘I think he was trying to paint me as a rabble-rouser,’ he said.
‘I wasn’t expecting it. I had been told it was a “get-to-know” Paul Murphy, the man behind the politics type interview, so I was surprised, yeah.’
Mr Murphy estimated that the crowd was in the region of 10,000.
While the protest in Mayo was significantly smaller, there was a heavy garda presence with crowd control barriers and armed detectives on standby.
Asked about the armed gardaí, a spokesman said the force does not disclose the whereabouts of its armed officers.
A spokesman said the regional response unit, whose officers have access to firearms, can be deployed at short notice to deal with incidents as required.
He said an event such as the Fine Gael ard fheis would be assessed in advance by the force and gardaí would be deployed accordingly. He added that whether this deployment included armed officers is an operational matter and not disclosed publicly.
Damien O’Neill of Greenwood Park, Coolock; Paul Moore of Mount Olive Grove, Kilbarrack; Bernie Hughes of McKelvey Avenue, Finglas; Michael Batty of Edenmore Avenue, Raheny, and Derek Byrne of Streamville Road, Donaghmede, were all jailed this week. Hughes, Byrne and Batty were sentenced to 28 days in prison, while O’Neill and Moore were each sentenced to 56 days.
‘He was trying to paint me as a rabble rouser’