By gallantly kneeing me in the lughole.
*swoon*
“I actually believed that the Taoiseach was in the first car that had left and I didn’t actually really see the other car coming out. So I slowly went to march, not to march, but to walk across the road because I thought that the cars were gone and I was going to go over to where all the other protesters were.
And as, you can even hear me in the video saying, ‘excuse me’ to one of the guards. As I walked slowly out onto the road, someone kind of shouted, ‘Kenny, Kenny, Kenny’ and I turned around and I could see him in the car and he kind of smiled a bit and I just automatically, knee-jerk reaction, banged on the bonnet, ‘Out, out, out’.
And that was it, next thing I knew, I was on the ground, being hurled to the ground. The car could have just pulled out, very easily. You know, all them guards had to do was hold me back. They did not have to pick me up and throw me to the side of the road or throw me onto the path.”
“I was thrown from the road over to the path, narrowly missed a bollard. And I actually believe that it’s thanks to, one of the guards, one of the guards in the black, he bent down at the end of it but you can clearly hear his knee, now that’s his knee hitting the bollard. And he saved my life, that one did. The tall guard in the black, he saved my life because he pushed my head out of the way with his knee. I actually thought I had hurt my neck but it turns out it wasn’t, it was his knee that was actually pushing into my neck to turn it away from the bollard.
My hip is quite badly bruised. It’s quite sore underneath… I’m out on the streets every morning, helping to stop the installations but doing it peacefully. I’ve never been arrested, I’ve never been injuncted. You know, I do, I’m a peaceful protester, I’m only doing this for my son. I need to have a future for my son and the way I see it is our country is being sold off, bit by bit, to the highest bidder.”
Fiona Healy who was removed by gardaí from the path of Enda Kenny’s car outside the Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin on Sunday speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland
Very sinister.
Listen back here
Previously: Everyone Stay Cool
“someone kind of shouted” and “he kind of smiled a bit”. Those comments, never mind the retrospective justification for getting in the way of the car makes her argument smell of BS (kind of).
Ah come on, she was only trying to cross the road!
If she’d just be honest and say she intended to make a scene but that doesn’t excuse the over zealous reaction of the Gardai, she’d come across a lot better..
I agree Hank – I heard her this morn and I thought she was being disingenuous, on the one hand saying she was engaged in a peaceful protest and at the same time admitting that she had rushed Kenny’s car.
She says the guards should have held her back..The situation didn’t allow for that..if they had they would have been unable to protect the Taoiseach’s car from the next protestor/s. So they got her out of there quick smart and they were well within their rights.
As for the line, ‘he saved my life’, if you’re going to engage in that type of stuff, you should be tough enough to take the consequences…spare us the sympathy routine.
I have no sympathy for her.
And the best Broadsheet can come up with is, ‘very sinister’. yawn.
Your son will need water to survive in the future.
It’s a shame your narrow minded focus is stopping the creation of a much needed new environmental policy.
Your intentions might be good but misplaced when it comes to a water conservation measure.
It’s a shame your narrow-minded focus is stopping you from acknowledging there are alternatives to a flat tax to pay for a capital project and that not all naysayers are the ‘no contract/no consent’ sort. There is a principal involved.
This isn’t about metering for conservation or maintaining the system, I suppor that – it’s a capital project – it’s about building a new system entirely. It’s exactly the same as charging a fixed 200 euro fee to parents of school-goers to cover the school building programme, whether your kids attend a DEIS school in Jobstown or a Loreto in Stephen’s Green.
Capital projects should be funded progressively – not the prince and pauper expected to pay the same amount towards them. At least in a decent society.
Something tells me that “Kill The Poor” might be a little bit less than sincere :)
This is great, ahjayziz. Very well said.
“You know, all them guards had to do was hold me back.”
Those guards. The word is those.
I seen it.
I done it.
Them things.
de hack o dem garda piggy hooers, deyd sicken yer hole xxx wb bbz xxxoo
hope ur ok hun xx
I listed to that interview this morning….the line “I was only trying to cross the road” was hilarious.
Brave woman, she’s only a slip of a wee thing, but she still confronted the Taoiseach about what must be one of the most incompetent acts of public administration ever in this country. A modern day heroine who cares enough to protest in the first place, I hope her bruises heal quickly and that she’s not in pain.
As for the story above, one Garda flung her and didn’t seem to care how she fell or what object she hit. Not sure about the “tall one”, was it a deliberate act to try to avoid her head hitting the bollard, or did his knee get in the way?
Yes, a brave woman. Most commentators on this site wouldn’t have the courage to confront the taoiseach or gardai. We need more like her.
She is a beacon for our times. The only shame is that we have already named all the bridges after Rosie Hackett and that Calatrava woman.
Calatrava’s a man.
Really? I must have been mixing her up with that Constant Markievicz who built the swimming pool.
We could at least name the bollard after her.
Ha!
+1
What will it take for the people to rise up, do we require the Guards to be flinging our woman around like so many frisbees?
First they launched the women, and I did not protest because I was not a woman.
The air over Kildare Street will be stiff with flying patriots by Christmas. I’m having my golf umbrella reinforced, and I advise everyone to do the same.
Leo?
https://www.broadsheet.ie/2014/11/17/he-doesnt-normally-tutu-this/
Bolshoivik.
I don’t play golf. Will my brolly from euro-stretcher do the trick?
Stand under Bono’s house for half an hour. With the luck he’s having it can’t be long before he comes skidding out the window.
Ben, you’re talking to Westmeath’s Intergender Wedgie Champion for three years running. I’ve taken my lumps, comrade. Now where’s this bathtub you’re trying to flirt me into?
Knee got in the way he was going for an on the volley shot, hoped to kick her into an open hotel window across the road.
“Not sure about the “tall one”, was it a deliberate act to try to avoid her head hitting the bollard, or did his knee get in the way?”
So you’ve elevated her to Hero status, but you’re skeptical when she herself says that an individual did his best to prevent her being seriously injured?
No, not doubting her words, just confused.
Did the Garda deliberately knee her in the head to stop her head connecting with the bollard? Wouldn’t you tend you use your hands if you were the Garda trying to stop some serious injury, why your knee?
One of the gardai were injured in this incident as in trying to stop her getting at the car they had their own foot run over. You can see them limping in the video at the end. That was her fault.
I don’t know why she expected the gardaí to take a softly softly approach to a person jumping in front of the Taoiseach’s car and banging on the bonnet.
All they had to do was lift her up slowly on some kind of improvised hammock and deposit her on a sunlit camomile patch. They can’t even get that right.
Probably some sort of ridiculous notion that the Guards wouldn’t act like reckless amateurs.
So not letting any randomer that feels like it jump into the path and bang on the bonnet of the car transporting the leader of the country is now amateurish?
I have no grá for the guards, but I can’t think of any other police service worth its salt that wouldn’t respond the same way to this idiotic behaviour.
Are you kidding me? If they can’t restrain and remove her with a minimum of fuss without causing a risk to her and to others, and to the coffers of the state if she gets seriously injured and decides to sue, they are rank, untrained, undisciplined amateurs. Any other police service worth their salt would have her ushered to the pavement or arrested her quickly and firmly and without acting like they’re in a mosh pit. Applauding this unprofessional carry-on out of animus for its subject is utterly short-sighted.
You’ve got to take into account the fact that the safety of the Taoiseach (or any other VIP) is the priority. If it’s a hostile scenario (say, where protestors are banging on the Taoiseach’s car), they’d want to get the Taoiseach out of there as quickly as possible. They’re not going to politely ask the above crusty to get out of the path of the Taoiseach’s car – they’re going to move her and with haste. That’s exactly what we saw in the video.
I can’t imagine the police services of any other developed, stable democracy behaving much differently (save for perhaps the Americans that would’ve tazed or shot her).
tl;dr no, you can’t threaten or endanger the Taoiseach and expect to be treated like a princess
No way. Throwing someone aside like that? No way is that a proper response in that situation. That was a fit of pique. The only threat the Taoiseach was under was that of being annoyed or delayed. Yes, she had to be removed, but the manner in which it was done was borderline brutality. That kind of action escalates situations and diminishes the authority of the police force.
I reckon the ‘any other police service’ you refer to would be likely to do anything from shoot to imprison anyone that approached their Prime Minister’s or President’s motor vehicle. This ‘amateur’ approach plays both ways.
There’s a whole lot of ‘any other police’ to choose from. I’d rather we aspired to best practice.
Perhaps we should use fur-lined handcuffs so that people don’t suffer a nasty chafe on their wrists
You’ve been talking to Clampers’ Ma.
Perhaps a toy plastic set with a goldie badge and tiny truncheon out of a cheap shop Santa’s sack would be more appropriate for this level of policing.
if you want to help your son you might want to get a job and start acting like a thug.
“get a job and start acting like a thug” has the embargo on Garda recruitment been lifted then?
I’m going to start posting gifs of people doing raspberries any time someone makes a comment implying that someone who can’t get a job in a recession is somehow a lesser person.
This directly impacts on her ability to get a job
Recession has been over for quite some time now…
see where she went wrong was she didn’t attack the taoiseachs car on a bouncy castle. that way when she was thrown back she could bounce back up with no injury
Professional protester.
professional thugs
“I was actually there to deposit some books, as the name suggests. As I walked slowly up to the counter, someone kind of shouted, ‘Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy’ and I turned around and I could see him in the car and he kind of waved a bit and I just automatically, knee-jerk reaction, sort of loosed off three shots in his direction. Bang bang bang. It was over in a second. Anyone would have done the same.”
Brilliant ! :)
There you all are, divided and conquered.