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Annie West tweetz:

I could draw what 50,000 Right2Water protestors looks like, but erm *cough* I ran out of paper…

Alternatively…

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The Workers Solidarity Movement writes:

“The worst example of figure fudging appeared on the Irish Times website on Wednesday night, when journalist, Ronan McGreevy attempted to coroborate the Garda figure by using an app called CrowdSize. His estimate came to 32,000. It all looked very plausable, if you weren’t there. The problem with McCreevy’s use of the app, was that he only filled a fraction of the ground that was covered by protesters, the area around Merrion Square west, where the stage was. It is possible that he didn’t move from that area…overall, the estimate I got from running CrowdSize on the areas I covered was around 65,000, and given what others have told me about numbers in areas I didn’t cover, the attendance had to have been in excess of 80,000 at the very least.”

FIGHT!

Dec 10 water charge protest in Dublin (WSM, Facebook)

Previously: The Final Countdown

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29 thoughts on “Head Counter

  1. Medium Sized C

    And of course the workers solidarity movement have no interest in making it look like there were more than 32,000 people at the thing. No desire to fudge the figures from them.

  2. medieval knievel

    funny the way the gardai had the more accurate figures than the organisers for the anti-abortion march, and now they can’t tie their own shoelaces when it comes to estimating the size of the crowd.

  3. ahjayzis

    What POSSESSED the organisers to do it at lunchtime on a wednesday? Seriously, why? The whole Human Rights Day is insulting.

    I broadly support them but for god’s sake, why not schedule next one for Christmas Day?

    1. ABM's Bloodied Underwear

      One reason was to do it when the Dail was sitting, I gather. How many times have you read here people scoffing at weekend protests saying it’s being done on front of an empty building?

    2. louislefronde

      ….Because it was organised by Socialists, and naturally they have all the time in the world….

  4. Just sayin'

    “…in excess of 80,000 at the very least.”

    I think this guy us getting his figures from the same place as those Anglo executives. I blame the maths curriculum.

    1. ahyeah

      Eh… he’s just showed you precisely where he’s getting his figures.

      And his estimate is, if anything, conservative. At that time, there was already a pretty big presence at the GPO and generally around O’Connell Street, as well as stretching down the quays on both sides. And I’d estimate another 1,000-2,000 on the move between the various locations. It took me 40 minutes to get from the top of Dame Street to Merrion Square – particularly congested around College Green.

  5. Clampers Outside!

    So is he saying a snap shot of the day, at one moment in time all those people filled those streets… I though it was a march, a moving crowd….. sure wtf would I know, I’m a Clamp, I don’t move at all at all.

    1. Blonto

      Some groups marched to merrion square, but it was not a marching protest. It was a meet-at-merrion-square protest.

      As for the crowd size debacle. I saw two sides of merrion square filled, and what looked like a whole load of people marching down Nassau street. Also, because it was lunch time there was a lot of people leaving all the time, with more coming in. I reckoned somewhere between 80K-100K. The 30K figure put out in the media was just a joke.

      1. Trishadem

        Couldn’t have summed it up any better than this. I was there between 1 & 2.30 pm not far from the National Gallery and there were easily 50 to 60,000 people there at the peak time (say between 1 & 2) but people were on the move all the time – arriving and leaving. I was also surprised by the numbers in Clare St at tha time. We had to make a detour via Swenys and the back gate of TCD to get into Nassau St as it was impossible to get through. Also had difficulty getting through the crowd @ the end of Kildare St. Anyway what’s in a number? The Merrion Sq protest was disciplined and dignified and also heartfelt. Owes mighty impressed and glad to be part of it.

    2. italia'90

      I’m going to ask it, fcuk it, but what do you know? We’re still arguing about numbers that attended but the real argument is elsewhere. It took almost 2 hours to get the march from O’Connell St to Merrion Sq. so it was static for long periods around College Green and Nassau St/Clare St. It was absolutely jammers. My WAG(Wild Ass Guess) given the attendance of other marches is that there was somewhere between 60-70,000 people who marched. I’d also contend that as many as 20,000 people joined in on their lunch breaks, but weren’t on the actual march. I hope this gives the non-attendees a clearer picture of the crowd size. I’ll say it again, I will pay for water usage, but I will not stand idly by while this fiasco is being perpetrated.

  6. Mysterymeat

    Or maybe we could have policy decided by some reasoned and informed debate, coupled with input from recognised experts and with final decisions made by officials of an actual representative democracy.
    But nah, lets just have lots of populist shrill shouting, and the grubby paw of corporate interest groups hard at work on the parish pump politicos.

    1. edalicious

      +1

      There’s absolutely nobody that’s involved in this that I would actually trust to do their jobs properly, with the best interests of everybody in mind.

  7. Eeejit

    Doesn’t matter how many were there. Not a sausage.

    What matters now is how many complete their application before the deadline. That’ll be the real figure that changes things. It’s at 50% now, if it gets to 70%, Right2Water movement is dead in the water, so to speak. IMHO.

  8. Karen Hoey

    The Government are including the forms that were sent back unfilled with ‘No Contract, No consent’ written on them. Don’t believe the hype there is NO WAY they have 1 million filled out forms.

    1. italia'90

      Yeah my neighbours were saying that they didn’t fill out the forms just there names and address but they have been informed that they are fully processed as IW customers at present with their details set to a default setting. I’d imagine whoever designed the database wasn’t given the possibility of “incomplete” or told to design it with the default as it is? Stands to reason I suppose. The last I heard only 79,000 forms were returned completed.

  9. Wayne Carr

    This is obviously a government ploy. Remember when Kenny said he’d disband Irish Water if any more than 32,000 showed up? This Gardaí “favour” is obviously a way of preventing an investigation into them happening.

  10. Truth in the News

    It appears that numeracy estimations is a form of virus, that is endemic
    in the Dept of Finance, even the Goverment, the Guards, it has even
    infected the paper of record the “Orish Times”
    Remember the figure that was touted in the initial guarantee in 2008
    the missing 3 Billion, cost of installing water meters so on
    Incidently who is this McGreevy chap in the IT, we sure could use his
    talents in the in the Dept of Finance in reducing the NATIONAL DEBT

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