The Final Countdown

at

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Where’s Wally record attempt in Merrion Square (top) and a crowd map of yesterday’s protest

Further to CrowdGate.

Graeme Kelly writes:

There were 3,657 people at the Where’s Wally record attempt in 2011. From my view of the crowd yesterday I saw the following (see map). Each red block on the map = approx say 3,500 . . Do the maths and let the comments begin…

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66 thoughts on “The Final Countdown

    1. Mister Mister

      And each one of those does not represent 1 household, many were couples, some brought the whole family of kids. So lets say on average there were 2 people per household attending, and we’ll round it up to there being only 30,000 households being represented.

      Not a lot in the grand scale of things.

      1. Lilly

        Are you joking, on a bitterly cold Wednesday afternoon in the most passive country on earth, that’s massive.

          1. pedeyw

            That’s only if you assume that people attended the protest are the only people opposed to the water charge.

      2. Ms Piggy

        So in other words, let’s divide that very reasonably calculated figure by about 2, until we get back to the figure you e convinced yourself is not important! Brilliant stuff.

          1. squiggleyjoop

            So if two separate people in a household are against the water charges then they are only really one person?

  1. to posh to protest

    I was there yesterday and was stood along the south section of the park and that was jammers. easily add another 5 blocks onto that there, bringing it up to 20 blocks of 3.5k people. 70,000 people. Not bad for a wednesday afternoon

    1. Paolo

      “to posh to protest”

      If you’re so posh then why is it that you never learned how to spell the adverb “too”? You just don’t get value for money these days.

  2. Godwin's Law Police

    So with just a little bit more planning and colour coordination we could have set a record yesterday that would have stood forever?

    If you consider the protest to only contain the people that neatly fit into the little squares on the map, you’re up around 50K. If you add the people that drifted in and out, or were down blocking the O’Connell street bridge, you can add a lot. If you subtract the people that were trying to get to/from their home or place of work in the middle of all the ruckus, you can subtract a few.

  3. Alfred E. Neumann

    I don’t really care how many people turned up, but the protestors were surely nowhere near that tightly packed.

  4. Just sayin'

    I for one would’ve liked seen Gerry Adams dressed as Waldo. Its as close to a prison uniform as he’ll likely wear now.

  5. Dub

    While the logic is sound enough, the people in the Wheres Wally record are tightly packed together. In a moving protest it is more spaced out. The figure is definitely closer to the truth than the 100,000 quoted from some protesters but I would bet money that its probably much closer to the 30,000 quoted by the guards. maybe 40,000

    1. cousinjack

      Even so, that would be a massive turnout for a Wednesday in December, noting that the infamous medical carsd protest by the OAPs was around 15,000

      1. Dub

        Yeah very true. To be honest I think it would be in and around the 30,000 if not less than that. just going off the info above I estimated 40,000 but that could easily be wrong.

  6. Alfred E. Neumann

    “I have no information as the whereabouts of Waldo. The IRA as I understand it has been as forthcoming as possible, but we’re talking about a very different time. Obviously those kinds of records just weren’t kept. I urge everyone who does have any information to communicate it to the authorities.”

      1. Alfred E. Neumann

        “Obviously the information that he has at least one known alias only adds to the uncertainty surrounding his disappearance. It certainly strengthens the case that there was more going on than the British government have let on. But as I’ve said, I have no interest in playing the blame game. We are doing a grave disservice to his family or families by digging this up again.”

        [memo to Caoimhín – could you tidy this up, remove “graves” and “digging up”, and get it out before the Cahill thing blows up again?]

        [obviously don’t say “blows up”]

  7. Cian

    Wasn’t at the water protest, but that where’s Wally crowd look tighter packed than any protest I’ve been at…

    1. declan

      +3500 – I was there at 2.30 and it wasn’t even close to the where’s wally crowd. I was there too : )

      The other issue is when was the picture from last night taken (showing the crowd back from around Trinity side gates on). Was it on the way to Merrion square or had the march not ended?

  8. Nessy

    You’re omitting a lot of people who were on the south side of the square, which was to the left of the stage. There were thousands there too, easily 4 red boxes more

  9. Surely They Wouldn't Lie To Us

    You guys can be jerks sometimes.
    60k plus yesterday and that’s being conservative.
    I’m a numberoligist so I know what I’m talking about.

  10. Rep

    Honestly, who cares? There was a lot of people there. That said, we all laughed when the pro-life lads said there was loads there at their protest while the gardaí said it was no where near that amount of people. Now, when it happens to something you agree with, it is just not on! You can’t have it both ways.

    1. Sinabhfuil

      But the pro-life people were surely counting all the pregnant people as at least two? Isn’t that fair?

  11. gertrude

    i think with a slight imposition of iron fist the protestors could be coerced into rows of 10 and instructed to band together and march in a line until they pass a certain point. each row will be photographed. much like the start of a marathon. protestors who wish to join at a point afterwards risk their presence not being counted.

    at the end all rows will be counted and we will have a tally.

  12. Kevin

    I’m a student and we love a good protest…… I’d say there would have been a fine chunk of students there if the protest wasn’t in the middle of exams

  13. Francesco

    I don’t really care how many were there but the above crowdmap and the one the Irish Times used are incorrect. The crowd was mainly on Merrion Square South, also West and around Nassau Street past Kildare St. – the Irish Times said the crowd went back as far as the National Gallery on Clare St. Simply not true, Nassau Street was full. If they’d bothered to look out their window at anytime from 12pm to around 4pm they would have seen there were thousands on O’Connell St and bridge.

    Anyway, I found it interesting that Declan Ganley was allowed to set up a stage with Jumbotron videoscreens and sound systems outside the front door of the Dáil for a pro-life election rally and when the whole country descends on Dublin for water tax charges they shut the whole area off.

    Nassau St: https://www.facebook.com/wearerabble/photos/pcb.810418315670350/810418235670358/?type=1&theater

    Merrion Square South: https://www.facebook.com/wearerabble/photos/a.810431895668992.1073741864.126266120752243/810865502292298/?type=3&theater

    O’Connell Bridge: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202942300350120&set=o.126266120752243&type=1

  14. Joe

    So 3,657 Wallys in that space, they are all crammed in so for a protest group it’ll be much less then that ammount in the same space, lets say 2000.
    15*2000 = 30’000
    Let’s add say 15% for folk coming and going and we have a grand total of nearly 35’000
    The 100’000 number that the protestors are banding about is wayyy off the make.
    35’000 is prob an overestimate.

  15. Clampers Outside!

    No matter what anyone says… didn’t the organisers themselves reckon it was in the 30,000+ …DCC reckoned 30,000… and Gardaí estimated 30,000+

    It was giddy protestors and the like of Ogle that were exaggerating figures.

    30,000+ on a work day in the freezing cold IS a big number.

    No fight needed, just a nice cup of coco.

    Or IceT’s… Coco…. Ooooer!

  16. Mark G

    Those red boxes are far too small, the Waldo/Wally crowd is easily the size of two of them (the crowd goes to the war memorial, maybe a little further).

    I don’t get the need for some people to over estimate the numbers, 30,000+ on a mid-week demonstration in December is excellent going.

  17. Wayne Carr

    The whole oligarchical (tightly packed) argument is complete and utter inner party nonsense. Even a blind man could see that those wallys aren’t on the footpaths, whereas protesters were standing on the footpaths yesterday.

    Hence, in the road area, there were are more wallys than there were protesters, but on the path area, there are more protesters than there were wallys. Certum est quod certum reddi potest.

    1. Karen Hoey

      That doesn’t include Merrion Square South which was where I was. This was as packed as Merrion Square West. So do the maths again!

  18. pissedasanewt

    Gov estimate 5k, Garda, 30k+, Protestors 100k, so somewhere in around that amount. But over 30k I would have thought.

    More then I thought there would be. A lot of different reasons for the protesters to be there though.. anti austerity, won’t pay for water, don’t like the way Irish water was setup, nothing to do today, here hoping a riot kicks off. etc..

      1. Francesco

        It was on a Saturday. Twice. This time it was a Wednesday, suited a lot of weekend workers, people coming up for Christmas shopping and there was 6 weeks notice to take a day off. That’s what I did. Lot’s of seniors with grandkids at it too, which makes sense, kids are busy at weekends with sports etc parents dont want to give up a saturday for protest.

  19. Karen Hoey

    Hi all, I was at the Right2Water National Assembly yesterday. You haven’t put blocks of people on Merrion Square South which was as packed as Merrion Square West. I’m a graphic Designer so I copied and pasted 4 more blocks in on Merrion Square South. The crowd went right up to the corner of Merrion Square West so I added in another box on Merrion Square West. (If I could’ve uploaded the updated map it would be easier to visualise). If you do the maths that’s AT LEAST 75,000 people. And everyone was packed in tightly at the peak of it all. Brendan Ogle to ask everyone on a couple of occasions to take a step backwards because of the crush at the front.

    1. Joe

      Even with 4 more blocks it’s realistically not 75’000, it would barely be 50’000.

      35-50k a realistic range

      1. Karen Hoey

        Your maths clearly aren’t that great Joe. The next one is going to be held in Croke Park which seats 82300 people. There is no doubt that ALL of these seats will be filled and probably the pitch too. But RTE and people like your good self will still say there are only 30,00 people there!

  20. Frilly Keane

    Jesus yere all over the shop with the numbers
    Maps n numerology n app n shite

    Ever walked out of Croker on AI day? That’s what 80 k pedestrians looks and feels like
    Parky Kweeve? 30k ish Semple Stadium ? 40k ish

    No effin way was the moving footfall yesterday like Munster Final day

    My guess, based only on previous experience, good days n bad, sorchers n wash outs, is that between 12 midday and 5pm yesterday over a 100 thousand paddies made their way in peaceful good natured coneallyas to the Irish Government’s places of squander

  21. Truth in the News

    What occured yesterday was crowd management control in a effort
    by the Garda Soichana under instructions from their masters
    to disperse the march into side streets around Merrion Sq and up
    the entire length of Nassau St, this was contirived to make the crowd
    look small from the viewpoint of those addressing them on the platform
    From now on, very different tacticts are needed, where there can be
    no question of how many, simply march back again up to the Parnell
    monument at the top of O’Connnell St, and then head on to the HQs
    of the media, there not far away….and it time to send them a message
    too….we will see then, who will set the boundry, to the march of a Nation:

    1. Frilly Keane

      D’ya know I wondered that meself.

      Next day out we have to come up with a better count system.

      Maybe those Red Cards. Could they be printed off with number embedded into them via some online queue system

      Dunno. But the next day the visual presense needs to be more visably accurate

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