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Chaoitic scenes outside Coolock Garda Station, Dublin tonight (above) following the detention of three irish Water protestors this afternoon in Santry (Top video).

The two men and one woman were detained during The Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s earlier visit to Santry [for a meeting with Denis O’Brien], where anti-water charge protesters heckled him as he arrived. They have since been released and Gardaí say they are no longer at the station, however the protest continued.
Gardaí confirmed that a crowd gathered outside, and that the road by the station was closed for a time and diversions were in place.

Angry clashes between water-charge protesters and gardaí in Coolock (BreakingNews.ie)

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76 thoughts on “Pushing Back

  1. Inopro

    frankly if youre still gonna side with the gov. in Irl in 2014, and happily pay twice not to mention hand over your pps-you are a moron, a brainwashed sheep and you have no business considering your actions/opinion as in line with the greater good.

      1. Fergus the magic postman

        So let me get this right. The people of Ireland who no longer agree to bend over, and have had enough of the corrupt bonus culture, and quangos, and out and out corruption of this (and the last) government are in your opinion a baying mob?

        1. munkifisht

          Baying mob’s pretty accurate. The peaceful protests we saw at the weekend were inspirational and said everything that needed to be said. Violence and rioting are the acts of trlogdites and the small minded. Peaceful protesting always trumps the vile actions of morons who can’t keep their emotions in check. These clowns are the crowd sourced actions of 5 year olds with tantrums, and like any child having a tantrum, throwing their toys out of the pram, they need to be dealt with like children. You don’t reason with a 5 year old, you don’t submit to a 5 year old. You can’t have a reasoned discussion with them, you can’t hear their point. They have tarnished everything that was accomplished over the weekend.

          Further, rioting like this just shows these people do not want to be part of the civil landscape, they do not want to engage with their community on a local level, the heightened sense of spoilt privilege makes them think that smashing up the joint is how they will get what they want.

          Absolute. F**king. Dopes.

          1. Kieran NYC

            Agree with all of this.

            And please stop treating Irish people who don’t agree with everything the protestors say (which is confused and incoherent) as some kind of traitor.

          2. munkifisht

            Thanks Kieran.

            Let me also say that I have been very supportive of the protests up until now, and absolutely agree with people protesting peacefully, but these kind of violent actions just can’t be condoned.

          3. Anne

            Oh get a room, the two of ye.

            Listen to the traitor in NYC.
            Are you living the dream yet Kieran in NYC?
            What part are you confused about?
            A baying mob is not a bunch of women sitting down.

            As for this – They have tarnished everything that was accomplished over the weekend.
            Get a grip.

          4. Fergus the magic postman

            Maybe I need to look at those videos again @munkifisht, because I’m not seeing any violence or rioting. All I’m seeing is some heavy handedness by the Gardai, who are supposed to be “Working with Communities to Protect and Serve”.

            @Kieran NYC: you say you agree with everything munkifisht said. For clarity (which we’re hearing a lot about recently) does that include when he said the peaceful protests we saw at the weekend were inspirational?

          5. ABM's Bloodied Underwear

            @Munkifisht, are you saying that you first refuse to engage with a 5 year old, then when you have the good grace to look at them, do so with a sneer and arms folding in aggressive “f*ck you” stance?

            Do you also pepper-spray 5 year olds, hurl them around with gleeful abandon as well as throwing the odd punch or kick at them?

            I’m pretty sure the first bit is not recommended when dealing with 5 year olds and the second is unlawful. Although if you wear a garda uniform, a do as I say not as I do approach seems to be a-okey for some reason.

          6. JohnR69

            The whole point of a democracy is that people are listened to. When people, especially the working class, are not listened to, which continues to happen and 42% of European debt dumped on them, and 83% of their fisheries taken away from them, then rioting is a necessity of the democratic process. Especially when people are locked up and their leader sells their country out. Get back in the real world you liberal bourgeoisie! The great freedoms of the world happened because people fought. And Im sorry if its not always like a disney film all inspirational and peaceful but that’s reality. Get over it.

          7. Atticus

            Here munkifisht, what type of 5 year olds are you dealing with that they can’t be reasoned with? Surely you mean 2 year olds?

          8. offMoof

            No riot despite the Gardas best efforts. The local Guards from the station seemed very uncomfortable with the situation, definitely brought in the instigators. Woman was punched and 16 y/o girl pepper sprayed. Apart from attacking women public order guys and girls jeering at us calling us unemployed and uneducated. We marched from station to Artane roundabout to calm things down after pepper spray incident. They seemed to really want a riot but the crowd wasn’t falling for it, a few flare ups but it was kept under control nobody wants to lose moral authority. Don’t fupp with our democracy lads. In the court yesterday too very very tense. Reports via text about Garda enforcing 20m injunction while barristers were still presenting case well before judge ruled.

          9. munkifisht

            You can literally f**k right off Anne. Look at my comments on this site. I have constantly stood opposed to the idea that peoples social background was something to be sneered at.

            Yes, looking at the videos, what I’m seeing in the first is the Gaurds moving people on and those people turned violent. In the last I’m seeing people openly attacking the gaurds with hoods up.

    1. Mister Mister

      We don’t pay twice, just sayin.

      These are the same type of eejits to complain about poor garda response times, while they were blockading the station.

      Eirigi are some rabble rousers though.

  2. DD

    Well said, Inopro.

    If this government had not continued bailing out professional gamblers with our money, there would have been no problem financing their corrupt quango.

    Not a cent to phoney joanie.

  3. Cark

    Crack out the popcorn lads!
    Noonan and Co. thought they could sit back and relax after the budget.
    I really didn’t expect this swathe of public anger with IW to last this long.

    The next few weeks, particularly Dec. 10th should be pretty interesting.
    Think I’ll leave that Irish Water pack on the shelf for another bit…

    1. Frilly Keane, Anyone?

      Wait’ll all the backbenchers go home for the Christmas Holliers. Which is Probably next week.

      I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if Baldy announces his retirement before he puts his anim inta the Kris Kringle jar.

  4. delta V

    Ah feck. Drove through ranty horde but left dashcam on my bike for catching women on their own. Coulda paid my water charge with YouTube hits payback.

  5. Niallo

    Violence will only serve to backfire on the protests as a whole.
    A righteously indignant enda &co are sure to be interviewed soon, something along the lines of ” the people of ireland will not be cowed by this kind of disgracefull scene” or “this goes to show there is a mob mentality at work in a small demographic of the public” and “this kind of petty agitation only highlights the small bunch of thugs behind these protests”
    You watch, see if i’m wrong.

    1. DD

      Ha ha, raised voices do not equate to voilence.

      The double taxation of ‘water charges’ will be smashed by a variety of actions including noisy street protests.

      Not a cent to phoney joanie.

  6. Jackdaw

    What s***e is Gemma O’ Doherty coming out with now. Her profile picture is of a horse or should it be a one trick pony?

    1. Spartacus

      I thought you’d put in an appearance, Jackdaw. Were the lads wearing their new bodycams yesterday? I’m sure they’ll have no problem justifying their actions once the videos are analysed, right? Gemma O’Doherty, just like the bodycams, is doing her bit to keep everybody honest. Do you see a problem with that?

        1. Spartacus

          You’ll need to come up with a more substantive argument than that. The default passive-aggressive stuff that was drilled into you at Templemore doesn’t cut it when every citizen has a camera and access to social media.

    1. Sam

      Clear enough video – the behaviour is rightly called assault.
      You either escort them off the road, or you arrest them, you don’t get to feck them to the tarmac, and then go looking for the next victim.
      Far too eager to please their gombeen masters.

    2. ahyeah

      Sad to see that. Whatever about lack of effective training, says a lot about Guard’s attitude to public.

      1. Spartacus

        What events (in your imagination) preceeding that clip would lead us to believe that the behaviour of those Guards was an acceptable response?

    3. Mister Mister

      And also, “throwing females to the ground”.

      Ha ha, won’t someone think of the women. What decade are you from ?

      1. Spartacus

        You think it’s acceptable for a burly male policeman to throw a middle-aged woman to the ground in what appears to be an unprovoked assault? Never mind which decade, which planet are you on?

        1. Rep

          If they have been repeatedly asked to move out of the way of the vehicle, and then moved back from the way of the vehicle before returning to in front of it, how do you feel gardaí should enable to vehicle to continue on its journey? I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I do know that if you continuously disobey the gardaí, their actions to get you to comply will increase.

          1. Spartacus

            I don’t have a problem with Garda doing the job that they are asked to do on our behalf. However, I hold them to the very highest standards of behaviour. As professionals, they are trained to rise above verbal provocation, and they are trained to handle protests with proportionate response and in a lawful manner. Does that answer your question?

          2. Jackdaw

            Spartacus you in fairness talk a lot of sense ( most of the time). What these videos don’t show is the 40 mins spent talking to the protesters advising them that they are committing an offence, advising them of what would happen if they didn’t move. It’s not that they were just picked up off the road. The point I really want to make is that why can 150000 people behave impeccably last Saturday and make the legitimate concerns known by way of proper lawful and peaceful protest. There was a significant criminal element to the so called protests yesterday and it does nothing for the completely legitimate ideals of the anti water charge movement.

          3. pissedasanewt

            The Garda should have asked her politely to move aside, then if she refused, arrest her and bring her into the station, throw her in jail for a few hours. Then get slated for wasting tax payers money. The Garda are in a lose lose situation. As soon as people start blocking the Garda, they have to use force to move people.

            In other civilized European countries you’d get a baton across the head or water cannoned out of it.

      2. Fergus the magic postman

        @Mister Wow. To both your comments. It must be wonderful to be you, or even near you.

      1. Mister Mister

        Dead right Anne, City were playing last night so the fans were looking for something to do before hitting the pubs in time for kick off.

  7. Pol

    Am I missing something? All I saw was some irrationally violent behaviour targeted at the gardai….surely just a regular Tuesday night in Coolock?
    But seriously, why the hell are people protesting outside the garda station? From what I understand the three protesters were released earlier. What does this mob hope to achieve? The gardai are only enforcing the law. The law came from Kildare St. Protest on Kildare St FFS. I’m not a big fan of the gardai but they are in a pretty difficult situation here. What do the protesters want them to do? Desert and join the mob? Come on…..

  8. Alfred E. Neumann

    “What do we want?”
    “Whistleblowers.”
    “Where do we want them?”
    “Now!”

    It’s a tough world for the innovative chant leader.

  9. yogy

    I’m really getting tired of seeing these videos of annoying, knacker rent-a-crowds with nothing to do but disrupt and abuse the Gardai. Coolock and other knacker hotspots should be wiped out.

    1. scottser

      these protests have nothing to do with the killing of horses – please adjust your terminology settings.

  10. Clampers Outside!

    So, a bunch of protestors stand at the exit of a Garda station and block an exiting vehicle with the sirens on…. that’s all that can be seen in the blurry video. The consequence… Garda get heavy… well duh

    Bunch of f**kin’ gimps, those idiots that blocked the car.

    1. downtowntrain

      Enda likely to be hounded at Merlin Woods opening ceremony on Monday, better bring the camera along to capture demobcrassy in action.

  11. John

    Are these people for real? They’re trying to attack the car carrying the leader of our country (whether they like it or not, that’s what he is) and they get pushed out of the way. Should the gardai allow them to threaten the security of the Taoiseach? And should they not be allowed push women out of the way because they’re women? And the utter moron narrating the video with genius comments like ‘get back in your piggy wagon, the people don’t want you here’ – That’s the funniest one, ‘oh the people don’t want us? oh in that case, we’ll just leave and not enforce the law of the land at all’.
    I’m all for peaceful protests, like the ones at the weekend, but it’s time for the gardai to give the scumbags in these videos the full force of their batons and pepper spray.

  12. John

    Are these people for real? They’re trying to attack the car carrying the leader of our country (whether they like it or not, that’s what he is) and they get pushed out of the way. Should the gardai allow them to threaten the security of the Taoiseach? And should they not be allowed push women out of the way because they’re women? And the utter moron narrating the video with genius comments like ‘get back in your piggy wagon, the people don’t want you here’ – That’s the funniest one, ‘oh the people don’t want us? oh in that case, we’ll just leave and not enforce the law of the land at all’.
    I’m all for peaceful protests, like the ones at the weekend, but it’s time for the gardai to give the scumbags in these videos the full force of their batons and pepper spray.

    1. Fergus the magic postman

      Than protest about hugely corrupt shenanigans in government? When they could be at home watching telly?

      Or are you attacking the class of the protesters? Are you going to say they are all unemployed and they want everything for nothing, and you are paying for them? Is that it? Are you saying they should be working? Is that what you mean?

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