This morning.
Paul Murphy TD being arrested [In connection with Irish Water protests in Jobstown, Tallaght, Dublin last year] at his home at 7am. Six officers were in attendance.
Mr Murphy was apparently taken to Terenure Garda station.
Scott Masterson, of Eirigi and two Anti Austerity Alliance councillors Mick Murphy and Kieran Mahon were also arrested.
They are understood to be currently held at Tallaght Garda Station.
Gardaí have extended the detention of Paul Murphy for another six hours. He can be held until 7pm before he has to be charged or released.
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) February 9, 2015
Anti Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy has been released without charge
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) February 9, 2015
4pm Update here
Pic Via Workers Solidarity Movement (Facebook) 
TD Paul Murphy has been arrested by gardaí investigating an incident where Joan Burton was trapped in her car by water-charge protesters — RTÉ News (@rtenews) February 9, 2015
The four are being detained at a number of south Dublin garda stations, including Tallaght, Terenure and Crumlin. It is believed Mr Murphy is being questioned at Terenure Garda Station, where he can be held for 24 hours.
More as we get it.
TD Paul Murphy among four arrested over water protest (RTÉ)
Via Workers Solidarity Movement:
This morning squads of Garda around Dublin mounted dawn raids on the houses of water charges protesters over a sit in 3 months ago in Jobstown. At the same time across the city bankers and other speculators named in the HSBC Private Bank in Geneva leaks slept soundly in their beds knowing no one was going to be knocking down their door. If you want to understand the nature of power the contrast provides an excellent example.
The raids this morning were all about what the politicians spin doctors like to call optics. Politicians, media and Garda are on a drive to criminalise and marginalise those resisting the imposition of water charges. Sit ins and blockades have been part of political protest in Ireland for decades, the IFA routinely has far more militant protests.
The entire purpose of this mornings exercise was to provide media headlines about the raids. As soon as they happened the Garda already had their pet journalist, Paul Williams, ready to spin the story on the 8am news bulletin. Why you should ask would you even use a crime correspondent to cover political repression? The reliance on the Garda for stories mean they are incapable of being critical of repressive police action.
The leaked HSBC Swiss bank files were seized by the French police in 2009. Buried away in the Business pages of the Irish Times you’ll find a report on then that describes how they were found to contain details of “arms dealers who sold munitions to African child soldiers, traffickers in blood diamonds, and associates of third world dictators.” Alongside them were a number of Irish clients. Since 2010 quietly, and almost without mention in the media, 20 of the Irish clients have had to settle with revenue for 4.5 million. 3 have been quietly prosecuted.
Politicians, the Garda and the media could have decided to mount dawn raids in these cases. They could have decided that such an exercise would have sent a useful message to the capitalist class whose tax avoidance and evasion takes billions out of the economy every year. Except that the same class own the media and fund the politicians. So instead we had this morning’s farce – squads of police mounting dawn raids on people who are accused of sitting in front of a car three months back.
They hope these arrests will serve as part of their strategy to try and undermine water charge resistance by scaring ‘middle Ireland’ with talk of ‘anarchists & dissidents’ Nothing like a few dawn raids to throw out the wrong impression. But the blatantly political nature of this morning’s pantomime is likely to fool few.
Who politicians, media and Garda choose to target should serve to expose just how wrapped up power is in Ireland with the interests of a tiny narrow segment of the population, the richest 1% or even the 0.1%. Those with the wealth to make a Swiss bank account possible while the rest of us are taxed and taxed again to pay for the services we all need to access.
Workers Solidarity Movement (Facebook)
Previously: The Shirt Off Our Backs
Are You In The Sinister Fringe?
The Media And The Water Protests
Ah here. I don’t like the lad but c’mon!
+1
This is Feckin ridiculous.
The dirty tricks campaign will kick into gear now in an attempt to get more people to register before the first bills go out.
Yes. Striking while the iron is hot.
His megaphone will be seized as evidence and any water balloon making equipment will also be destroyed. He’ll be out by lunchtime, a great waste of Garda resources as they could have been helping the water meter installers
Zing.
Cute Garda is cute
Jesus wept Brian, you’re a sad case.
Hello, Pot! This is Kettle.
…sospan fach
There’s nothing like a Flanders and Swann joke on a Monday morning.
Seriously? That just stinks of interference from on high. While I may not agree with Murphy’s politics 100% I still believe he’s a reasonably sincere guy who (along with the technical group in the Dail) provide a counterbalance and opposition to the endless spin coming off the wheels of the government. What do they think he did? Orchestrate the whole event? Regardless of whether you think Joan being ‘detained’ in her car is a crime or not I’m not convinced he had anything to do with it. When they nicked him did he have a white cat with him? Was he wearing a nehru suit in an underground lair?
“Regardless of whether you think Joan being ‘detained’ in her car is a crime or not I’m not convinced he had anything to do with it.”
Is that not him blocking the car in the second picture?
Absolutely no fan of the water protests campaign, mostly because I think we should actually be protesting real issues and should have been for a long time rather than focusing on this distracting muck but how was she detained exactly? I can’t take a court case against the clampers (no, not you clampers) if they restrain my car. She locked herself in her car. I’m sorry, but I just can’t see it. The whole thing is farcical.
Maybe you would be less glib if it had been you in the car, surrounded my mouth-breathers screaming obscenities at you.
Or your mother, for that matter.
+1
perceiving it as a crime is meaningless, it actually is a crime. and it would be improper to ignore the crime just because it was perpetrated by an elected official
The Gardai are a bunch of cowards. Idiotic, sheep-like cowards.
My trouble with this is that it’s improper to ignore a crime at all. But the gardaí do this en masse on a regular basis. Why they’re paying such close attention and committing so many resources to this is what I have a problem with.
When people ask me who I think the arseholes are in this situation they act like there are two options.
A)Labour & FG
B) Everyone else.
They forget there’s a third option
C)All of the above.
Jaysus – what about my mother? What about yours? Mine’s dead 40 years so emotional appeals like that don’t sway me.
Section 9 Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994-2014 deals with Wilful obstruction
Any person who, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, wilfully prevents or interrupts the free passage of any person or vehicle in any public place shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [€400]
Murphy is a law graduate, he should acquaint himself with the Criminal Law as passed by the Oireachtas (of which he is a member)
That said, it is not beyond the state to use of the law when it suits them against perceived ‘enemies’ – and it is fair to say ‘the state’ is selective who they prosecute (especially when it involves people closely aligned to those in power)
And Section 15 Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 – False Imprisonment
still no arrest for the man who threw the brick at a garda car. Some say he was a garda. ……
Idiots said it was a garda.
desk garda said it was idiots said it was a garda
He was behind 9/11 too, yawn.
I heard it was a reverse vampire.
In a remarkable display of mental gymnastics, it was both a fake picture of a protestor and a real picture of an undercover garda.
Ben Gilroy likes this
Irish Water ads running on radio broadcasts after the news would be some serious joined up thinking.
Great news. Nice to see the intimidating and bullying little champaign socialist been held accountable for his mobbish behaviour.
Champagne! Peasant!
Champagne dah’ling champagne!
…a campaign socialist…is there any other kind?
Prosecco socialist?
Damn it, I meant to say protesto socialist.
This story should help to move the hsbc tax fraud story off the front pages.
Too many numbers in that HSBC story for people to even start reading on, I wouldnt worry there!!
You’re the funniest commentator on here!
what’s the world coming to then you can’t use violence to falsely imprison a woman?
I never knew sitting down could be so violent…
yeah, because she wasn’t subjected to the threat of violence. She just stayed in her car because it was nice in there
There’s more of a threat of violence waiting for a bus during rush hour than what she was subjected to.
Sounds like some think Derek the Fat Scrote would say.
(BTW if a security guard held you up like that in a department store you’d have a five figure settlement coming your way.)
HA! I can assure you I don’t suffer from being overweight or a scrote.
Held me up like what? I doubt a security guard would be sitting on the ground protesting in front of me and unlike your scumbag way of thinking, I wouldn’t bother being so fickle and sue someone for making me wait in a car for a couple of hours.
Five figure settlement, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Go off back to watching CSI and Judge Judy with you now…
I can assure you I don’t suffer from being overweight or a scrote.
– Post a pic up then I dare you
You’re alright Joe the Lion, I don’t want any more unwanted admirers
Your refusal to substantiate that outlandish claim with photographic evidence has been noted Nessy.
I believe she stayed in her car because that was recommendation given by her security team. She could have walked away from her car, in fact isn’t that what she did in the end?
Have you ever had taco fries from abrakebabra?
Is her gender relevant?
Why do you imply that it was?
No. It’s not relevant.
Mmmmwell, maybe to some extent her gender is relevant. If a largely male crowd is shouting not very nice things at someone who is a minister, yes, but is also a woman in her sixties, that can be quite intimidating. I think I’d have been scared to get out of my car and walk through, in her place, especially in the context of her having water fecked over her.
Whether the behaviour of some in the crowd warrants Paul Murphy being arrested, that’s another question, as is the timing of the arrest.
Maybe a little more light and a little less heat would be useful in this whole thing?
No. It shouldn’t make a difference, sorry, that’s part of equal rights is…. “Woman in her sixties” / Man in his sixties…. should be no different.
Well, thanks, Clampers, but that’s not how I understand equality.
This country’s going to the dogs since they let all them foreigners in
Seriously what the f**p did you just say you wreched f**ping scumbag? I accept your s**t most days on here joe but there is no need to be a racist p****.
You take everything literally Drogg? Here – put your hand in the fire there’s a good lad.
Go away and lie down for a while you fool.
I’ll rephrase my earlier post. …no one was arrested for throwing a brick at a garda car during these protests ……why not?
You are not in a position to know this unless you have access to pulse. Do you?
There were two people arrested at that protest, if memory serves; there’s nothing so say that one of them wasn’t Mr. Brickie, we just can’t be sure.
They are a stone’s throw away from making an arrest.
No one was arrested for knicking my green bin last night. And I want heads.
Another vote winner, and abuse of power by these clowns, last week the minimum alcohol pricing, which the whole country was out marching for.
They have either given up completely or lost touch completely ?
What do we want ? More expensive alcohol
When do we want it ?
Well nobody really does apart from
Roisin short legs.
Can you get jail for name calling ?
Silly rather than sinister, no? It’s not as though that photo of the back of his head is the last we’ll ever see of him.
“Attack on democracy”?
….or Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV hit and run guy
he’ll love it, persecuted for his beliefs, standing up of the common man and all that.
if there is anything sinister about it, its that he’ll be a threat to the SF seat in DSW and as much as his megaphone is annoying FG/LAB would much rather he take votes from SF than have SF gain another seat in the next general election
I’m glad the ignorant little person is facing the consequences of his actions. If he’s convicted, I hope the judge punishes him to the maximum extent possible. Of course, a jail sentence longer than 6 months and he can drop the “TD” letters after his name.
He sat on a pavement?
Well, yeah. He blocked a public thoroughfare and a right of way. You might not get arrested for that, but you’d get moved on. And if you refused to move on and continued to block traffic, you’d get arrested. And if I was doing such a thing for political purposes, I’d know there was a real chance of legal consequences. What I find hilarious is that people think there’s a political component to the arrests. This is just the sort of thing the water campaign is crying out for – martyrs to the police state! FG/Labour must be bracing themselves for the storm of outrage.
yes because dawn raids are absolutely what are necessary in these type of cases where hardened criminals are at large and a danger to the public
Anything less than a hardened criminal and a danger to the public and sure they might as well not bother at all.
I imagine that the concern would be that, if the Gardaí arranged for him to be arrested by appointment, he might turn up with his rent-a-mob and disrupt the work of the Gardaí.
But that’s just a guess.
If you genuinely believe this is political policing then your a moron.
You can’t even string a grammatically correct sentence together, why would anyone pay an ounce of notice to your opinion?
What would you have written then oh great teacher?
You’re
“you’re”
Yore.
Bore
YAAAAAAAAAR. (me hearties)
Oh dear.
Oh there
Oh Deer!
So, at least three Gardai (including a sargeant) came around at 7am to arrest a TD.
At least in Northern Ireland, where they wanted to arrest Gerry Adams last year on suspicion of involvement in the death of a woman in the 1970s, the police asked Gerry to attend the Antrim police station where he was arrested and questioned for a couple of days, with a file sent to the DPP.
Could the Gardai not have contacted the TD and asked him to attend.
They like to install fear. See, look what will happen if you don’t toe the line. The government are frustrated with people not signing up to IW. They owe it to Denis O’Brien to make an example of people.
*Instill fear.
A Sergeant and a Superintendent no less. Bloody favoritism that.
A sergeant and an inspector. Still, not what you would expect for a public order arrest.
How do you know that guards didn’t ask him to come in and he refused?
I strongly suspect both parties would have made that known if they had.
Soundings, apparently Paul Murphy’s wife told journalists that if Paul had received a request to go the Garda station to answer questions, he would have declined.
You also spake?
Indeed I do, Mr Lion, and Yay! and Sing!
Any link at all, you know, if journalists were told this; after all, it’s material to the criticism of the Gardai and their “over the top” resourcing of the arrest.
Soundings, I heard it on the News at One, it was the first item; Paul Reynolds was reporting from outside Terenure Garda Station.
Top of all the morning radio bulletins. Paul Reynolds is usually reporting gangland crime in such a level of detail that I wonder about the poor boy. So to hear him describe these four arrest ‘raids’ was a over-dramatic imo.
Silverspoon Socialist.
Yeah, that’s probably not even his home, I mean coat hooks in the hallway, not a cloak room in sight.
But he does buy coffee from Starbucks or Costa (can’t recall which, the Indo had a front page story on it though, didn’t it).
Was 7am really necessary? Smacks of fear tactics.
Would it have anything to do with maximising available time for questioning?
7am Mon – 7am Tue = 24 hours
10am Mon – 10am Tue = 24 hours
12 midday Mon – 12 midday Tue = 24 hours
Yes, but most will be just up or about to get up, and there’s a better chance of catching them at home.
I really do think it is that simple.
In fairness it’s not like Paul Murphy is hard to find. There’s posters up all over Dublin telling you where he’ll be half the time.
Would get a better run at questioning by doing it from say 9am to 5pm than 4pm to 9pm followed by 8am to 11am the next day. Would also reduce the requirements for a night in the cells.
also maybe it coincides better with the Garda roster.
what time d’ja get ourra de scratcher yerself?
Thats what you get for questioning your Masters.
Lil good piggys got to do what lil piggys are told to.
“This group of water balloners are as bad as ISIS”
What the DPP tells them to do in this case. Is that part of the conspiracy?
The DPP brought down the twin towers AND they shot JR, JFK and intend to assassinate Ken Barlow.
Regardless of our opinions on whether that protest would have achieved something, its fairly obvious to see that they are running scared of the left. The stasi style apprehension of Murphy is evidence Burton is going to shake in her boots.
As one lad on facebook put it
” when you start arresting your political opponents,it says much about the vulnerability and Insecurity of this government. “
+ 1
He’s just another middle class agitator who gets off on being in the presence of conflict. He’s also loving this, hardly the victim of right wing oppression.
If they were really scared, they would have avoided arresting him at all, because the Guards for all their many, many faults are not actually the stasi and can’t arrest anyone in conditions of complete secrecy and certainly in this case not without a storm of publicity and due process and certainly not at the arbitrary whim of politicians.
@Diddly Aye, he still has his principles which he adheres to. Very few other people from the establishment will stand up and take on the forces of the state pushing families to the brink and I think class has very little to do with it .
@Nigel, its a tactic to divide the left. Whats the bets he gets off scot free? Or will they try and do something to scare water protestors off? How will the Indo spin it?
He’ll get off with a fine, I would imagine. This won’t divide the left, this will inflame the base. It’s not designed to do anything, except maybe by the Guards trying to juggle between appearing to punish their detractors and not letting politicians/protestors off on relatively minor crimes just because they’re part of a populist movement that’s going to get re-energised by these arrests.
It’s not an easy job for the Guards policing this kind of stuff.
An easier solution would have been to get the batons out but because there was a TD involved that wasn’t done. Give him a few slaps in the station quietly I say.
ah joe, how quickly a baton to the head for murphy becomes a facepalm for you.
I know they should really taser him after using the electric cattle prod Scottser
They didn’t have a choice. This was the DPP’s decision. The Stasi comparison is peurile, espically considering the Socialist Utopia which created the Stasi to control and oppress its population.
Which is exactly the role the guards are filling ergo my point
Joe Higgins: “Its quite outrageous they would take him from his bed at 7″.
Says a lot about the work ethic of these guys; most normal people are up at 7AM on a Monday!
But we all know that the working day of a td is small!
workshy oiks.I get up on Sunday to start my Mondays labours….P.S. the gards should have a paramilitary force to sort out the violent elements immediately..
Fupping arrogant middle class elite politician – imagine the cheek of him, he even sleeps in a bed – should be out on the streets on a piece of cardboard, soft as sh*te he is.
If he was a real socialist he’d have been down in the coal mines for three hours already with his kids
Because getting up and having a shower and a cuppa at 7am is the same as being arrested at 7am.
We get up out of your bed so that you don’t have to.
Also, did I ever tell you about the time I took one for the team down at the old ball alley?
Joe! What you do or don’t do in my bed is between you and me, stop airing our durty washing!
Lol sorry it just slipped out
Define ‘normal’ please.
nice!
Literally everyone in this country has better things to do than paying any attention to this whatsoever.
(including me, why the fupp am I here?)
Hear, hear!
This was inevitable, people can mouth off about how it was done, but hey it’s not a surprise.
Nonsense Clampers, you clearly have nothing better to be at. I know I certainly don’t.
My name is Paul Murphy
I’m a Socialist TD
But Joan doesn’t like me
That’s plain to see
The guards were at my door
when i was in my PJs
What the fupp is happening
in Ireland these days?
what a ridiculous Gombeern Island we live on…
https://gombeenisland.wordpress.com
stop promoting your (poorly written, lazy) blog
Great blog. Hilarious stuff except for the James Connolly one which is too long.
Mixed reviews there bobs.
http://www.fluffybiscuits.org
what happened in jobstown was thuggery puré and simple. murphy is a rabble rouser. you know where he was in early january. on holiday in Lanzarote.
For shame. The cut of him going off on a holiday! Where would you get it!!
Wow talk about a Champagne socialist! Lanzarote eh! How the other half live!
An’ Leo was in Florida
Jays
They’re like Inter County Players for the holidays
so, erm, thought experiment here. if Clare Daly were to be held captive in her car for two hours by a gang of Youth Defence members, how much would you be bothered by it? would you expect prosecutions to follow?
Would there be anything to be gained from prosecuting them? YD have been taken to court before..http://www.fluffybiscuits.org/2013/08/youth-defence-and-far-right.html
do you even sell biscuits
Two issues either way it goes.
Either he hasn’t committed an actual crime or they can’t prove it – in which case what good did dawn raids serve since this event was so heavily videoed and gardai were in attendance at all times – what new information could an interrogation lead to? If they weren’t sure as hell that they were going to charge them, and they walk, this is critical blunder on behalf of a police force already distrusted by protestors.
Secondly they are charged and found guilty of a crime, fair enough – but then you have to ask how the f*ck does it take three months to prove a crime occurred in a situation where as mentioned, there were about 20 phone cameras, full tv crews, a few dozen gardai present?
The latter point intrigues me. It would not have taken 3 months to watch the footage and establish both (alleged) law-breaking and the identities of the [alleged] law-breakers. They wouldn’t have left it that long as the content wasn’t guaranteed to stay online. Nah, they already had their case – someone actioned it last night.
+ HSBC
Plus 3 Billion
( yep 3 billion of Irish stash)
for fup’s sake…every time the home sickness for good ol’ Oire’land comes on you only have to read an article about an event like this and then follow with the Broadsheet comments……and you’re glad you moved to a country where no one understands sarcasm, tax evasion is minimal and everyone’s in bed by 10.
If I’m not in bed by 10 I go home.
And we find out that a large chunk of the motor-tax take in 2014 is paying for Gibraltar-Water (IW)
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1029987353683488&fref=nf
They can’t arrest everyone to make the problem go away
Burton should be arrested because of her voice alone
It hurts my ears
I just pinged in some pics from Terenure GS
There’s that much crew outside you’d swear he’d won a BAFTA
BTW. Terenure is only a part time station so Paul will either be released shortly or transferred.
Released there now
I think he’s secretly enjoying this one more badge away from being a real revolutionary
This is a sinister development
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/irish-water-protesters-shout-shameful-abuse-and-block-councillors-from-leaving-council-building-tonight-30978281.html
#Stasi.
In other news: “Gay woman pixels face to hide extent of political policing”.