Protestors at Dáil cause an upset

• BATONED: Gardaí hitting protesters outside Leinster House on Tuesday night

Gardaí hitting protestors with batons as they try to charge the plinth outside Leinster House might be an image that the 26 County media will get used this year as the government’s financial disaster hits home. But when it happened on Tuesday night, it took a few people by surprise. The Enough is Enough campaign, launched recently by Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Socialist Worker Joe Higgins and People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barret, held a march on Tuesday night to the Dáil. The wet night meant it was a smaller than anticipated march, with approximately 500 or 600 people present. As the speakers took to the stage, one from each party, a group of about 100, or 40, depending on who you believe, took matters into their own hands and tried to storm the Dáil. Leinster House, Kildare House adjacent and the Department of Justice were all put on lock-down as the ushers and guards tried to deal with the attempted ‘security breach’. Issuing statements afterwards, the Gardaí said no one had been hurt in the melee, but photographs made available later made a lie of that.
Greece may be making the headlines at the moment, but with a debt crisis bigger than theirs, and a public at the end of its tether, the 26 Counties could become the international story quite soon.