We Will Not Be Muzzled

at

This afternoon.

Dublin city centre

Supporters of groups which are opposed to Covid-19 restrictions march from the Custom House, Dublin 1 to Government Buildings on Merrion Street, Dublin 2. A separate rally raising similar issues took place outside the Dáil, Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

Rollingnews

Update:

A small protest against a claimed ‘right wing agenda’ at the rally is confronted in Kildare Street.

Meanwhile….

A protest outside the offices of The Journal.

Meanwhile…




This afternoon.

A rival, socially distanced demo in ‘defence of public health’ at the Spire, O’Connell Street, Dublin 1.

Rollingnews

Friday: Competing Narratives

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136 thoughts on “We Will Not Be Muzzled

  1. Nigel

    No to stethescopes!
    No to getting tapped on the knee with a little hammer!
    No to opening your mouth and saying AWWWWW!
    No to plasters!
    No to Lemsip!
    No to flat 7UP!
    No to Lucozade and grapes!

          1. Papi

            A day long tissue in my mothers sleeve was enough, good for all your woes.
            Cholera? Wipe
            Broken leg? Wipe
            Angst with social acceptance? Double wipe, get out!
            Good times.

    1. Rosette of Sirius

      Hey we’re also now learning that these so called face nappies are now looking like the answer to sorting this whole mess out. They may potentially hold such small amounts of the virus that they may actually act like a vaccine…. Who’da thunk….

    1. SOQ

      So someone recognised as antifa takes a video and blames the other crowd- what were they doing there in the first place?

      Is the leader of antifa in Ireland not a convicted paedophile anyways?

      1. Do I need a username?

        @SOQ – Could you spare us your US incel imported fantasies of “Antifa” and defending the tracksuited nutters, losers, wasters, ex-cons and no doubt paedos marauding through our streets today hun?

        Stop wasting your life with this nonsense lest you find yourself having a nervous breakdown and in St John of God’s before you know it with little life prospects.

        1. SOQ

          My concept of antifa is real ‘hun’- those thugs have nothing to offer apart from aggression- so they get it back in spades. I am VERY far from a nervous breakdown btw, I have never in my long life been so focused and determined.

          Never before in our life times have we seen such authoritarian state actions. People unemployed, bankrupt, suicidal, cancerous, even afraid to go to their hospital while having a heart attack.

          And the remnants of what we call the left in Ireland think this is all perfectly fine- defendable even.

          If you cannot see what is happening around you then maybe it you who needs to ‘check in’.

          1. Do I need a username?

            @SOQ – ROFL. Bingo!

            Ok, so I’ll thank you for the mirth despite the incel driven homophobia but I’ll raise you your own lack of self esteem and paltry attempts at distraction via a doubtless smorgasbord of online conspiracy theories. If you think I assume you’re trolling from some delightful Southside abode, you’ve another thing coming. You’re angry and you don’t know why.

            Get a job, get a life, get a grip on reality. It’s all rather simple.

          2. SOQ

            @ Do I need a username?

            Not only am I gay but I have a history as a gay activist so lose the victim homophobic victim card- it won’t work with me.

            Your attempts to question someone’s mental health just because they hold views which differs from yous is all I need to know.

          3. SOQ

            My partner died of AIDS- is that what you are referring to? You could crack open a beer on my ass Darling- and I wouldn’t even notice.

            Enough of this nonsense- back to school- back to work- back to as it was and if you are a small or medium business- pray to God you can keep going until things level out.

            The only ‘new normal’ is when certain politicians, particular “journalists” and certain ‘health advisers’ are hung from the nearest tree.

          4. Papi

            No thanks, I’m grand.
            My point was, which you cunningly avoided by telling me about your dead buttocks, was that, of all people, shouldn’t you be tolerant of other people’s life choices instead of going on and on and on and on and on about anti mask, muzzles, covi……….zzzzzzzz

          5. SOQ

            I have no problem with other people’s life choices- wear a muzzle while doing the proverbial if you wish but, do not claim is is in any way backed up by science- because it is not.

            And most certainly do not attempt to force me so do likewise- I know what living with a deadly virus was like- and Sars-Cov-2 / CoVid-19 is nowhere close to it.

            Open the bars- start with the gay ones- we have lived with a lot worse.

      2. George

        There is no leader of anti-fa in Ireland. What do you mean “blames the other crowd”? Blames them for what? Abusing and attacking people? Yes because that’s what they did. Imagine being blamed for your own actions!

        1. George

          Also if was a Garda I’d really like to take a look at the hard drive of some of these fellas who get such a thrill out of screaming ‘Paedo’. Perhaps the lady doth protest too much in some of these cases.

          1. SOQ

            Maybe nobody really cares about ‘them’ and the ‘other fellas’ and just think that restricting the oxygen supply of children while they try to get an education is wrong?

          2. George

            No explanation of your nonsense comment about how the right wing anti-maskers weren’t to blame for hitting a woman in the head with a flag pole? I’m somehow not surprised.

            And no I don’t think they are protesting about masks in schools. Nothing about that on any of the signs I’ve seen which mostly talk about themselves not wanting to wear masks as well as the usually anti-vax rubbish.

          3. Do I need a username?

            @SOQ – less of the homophobia please. You got bigger fish to fry – your sanity for instance.

    1. Daisy Chainsaw

      One of them is Niall McConnell, openly racist and homophobic, friend of Jim Dowson so probably being paid by Brits, like Hermann and the Irish Farage Party.

          1. SOQ

            My clown?

            There was people from both left and right at that march- that you attempt to paint everyone the same as the Donegal Donkey and his dads army says it all.

            If you felt so strongly about this subject then why were you not at the GPO eh?

          2. Daisy Chainsaw

            He’s your nasty racist. You’ve knowingly decided to align yourself with nazis and to march behind them, so spare me the pathetic excuses.

          3. SOQ

            Attempt to associate people like me with opportunistic chancers all you want but I have been called a lot worse on gay liberation marches by those back in the day.

            If you cannot see that people are suffering and that people will die because of this stupid lockdown nonsense, then what other people think of you is way more important than anything else.

            What you geniuses don’t seem to understand is that because of your inability to focus on a single issue politics, by throwing offensive slurs on people in such a manner you are actually growing the right wing base.

          4. SOQ

            So anyone who disagrees with masks is a racist now is it?

            That really is some leap- even for the left. The POCs at the march yesterday must not have got the memo.

            The empirical data is there in black and white (pun)- the introduction of mandatory mask wearing does not make a blind bit of difference- so what is the friggen point?

          5. Daisy Chainsaw

            This nurse, a frontline health worker, thinks so. I just think you’re disgruntled, anti science donkeys who are okay with being organised by known racists to make their numbers look good.

            Your defence seems to be “I’m not a racist but I’m happy to hang out and share a platform with them on a regular basis.” So you can see why people will tar you with that brush.

          6. f_lawless

            I think yesterday more than anything was just a chance for people to gather together in a show of solidarity with one another. I didn’t feel that any of those who spoke made much of an impression other than to give people an excuse to let out a few cheers together.

            I remember there was one liberal-lefty type speaker with an American accent He spoke in soft tones about the need for understanding and not to give in to hate.

            Next there was a woman talking in a similar vein something about how the ancient druids of Ireland passed their DNA on to us ..and also how we should dress up in costume for the next event to bring a festive spirit to it.

            Then up steps the young chancer with his thick Northern accent “We are Siol na hÉireann a hardline Catholic nationalist group..100 years ago our forefathers spilled their blood..blah blah”. By the end of his rant he was criticising RTE who where “airing pro-abortionist and LGBT views”! It was so out of step with the two speakers who came before to the point of being comical and I felt the crowd’s reaction became increasingly muted as he went on.

            Directly after he finished the woman who had spoken prior took to the mic again to undermine him: “I just want to say that all LGBT people are absolutely welcome here”. That got a big cheer from the crowd.

        1. SOQ

          @ Daisy- that you can sit here arguing all day but refuse to look at a presentation which is currently going viral just about sums you up now doesn’t it.

          @f_lawless- I think it was a big mistake by Yellow Vests letting the Donegal Donkey anywhere near that march- according to him you need to have five generations in Ireland before you can be really be Irish- he is an absolute clown.

          1. Daisy Chainsaw

            Pandas and kittens go viral too, but nobody has to listen to their manifesto. Youtube videos are the refuge of cranks.

          2. Pat Mustard

            “YouTube videos are the refuge of cranks..”

            And the council on foreign relations is a hive of war monger mass murders who love nothing more than vaporising as many black and brown people as they possibly can.

            Your becoming more unstable and hysterical every day.

          3. Daisy Chainsaw

            Poor Patpat. So sad, but keep stalking cos it obviously gives your sad, pathetic life some meaning to follow me around like an over eager puppy looking for my attention.

          4. Pat Mustard

            As you and your hysterical buddy Nigel harass SOQ..

            Go on and cite Dave Van Zandt of the council on warmongering relations you absolute hypocrite.

          5. V AKA Frilly Keane

            Exactly Daisy

            People don’t have to listen
            And if election results to date mean anything
            They tell us the vast – over 90% vast majority, aren’t buying what they’re selling, today or on any other day.

            AFAIC the more the likes of this Niall fella are given to spout their views, and put them out into broad daylight, and not from their Mammy’s back bedrooms to the internet, the better

            Because it lets everyone see this stinking seething ignorant underbelly for themselves
            Put a face and name to the stuff they get soaked in the Twitter/ Facebook etc

            These street performances let’s the general public take precautions and keep themselves vilgilent to the likes of Niall & co

            Seeing and hearing it all for themselves
            In broad daylight
            Is the safest fact checking you can get

          6. SOQ

            @ Daisy- a presentation endorsed by Carl Heneghan- Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University- but sure you know best eh luv?

          7. Nigel

            ‘the council on foreign relations ‘

            I think you need to repeat this about a dozen more times, then find something new to repeat, ok? You’re doing great, sweetie.

      1. V AKA Frilly Keane

        Daisy
        That person is indeed, and with no shadow of doubt, a despicable person
        He is a man, but I don’t judge all men to be the same as him
        He is a Donegal Supporter, likewise, I don’t treat all the other Donegal Supporters who he shouts alongside of a (normal) Sunday like I would him
        You get my drift

        Take comfort in the fact that the voters of Donegal have made it clear he does not represent them nor ever will

        And you can say the above about all the others like him

        As recently as February this year
        Did any one of those Latter Day Patriots and cranks, even the higher profile ones like John Waters or Longford Reynold’s amount to enough support to get their deposits back?

        Trust the Irish People Daisy
        They have made it clear, and in every Constituency in the Country, repeatedly, that they do not want these elements representing them.

        In real life, these are idle inconsequential People, with nothing to offer their communities, they are desperate for something – anything at all will do, to make themselves relevent.
        The Paddys have made it loud and clear that it’s not going to happen where our voices are the only ones that matter. The Ballot Box

        Learn to tolerate
        That’s when you’ll have the batens of them
        Wherever they turn to next

        The.more they talk and carry on Daisy
        The more you, and I, know we’re on the right side

          1. bisted

            …Daisy…I’d love to be supporting you but you seem well able to support yourself…I’ve been on the naughty step for the past three weeks so it’s unlikely that this will pass the mederator…I think our days in this echo chamber are numbered…

            BS SEZ: Bisted – your time on the naughty-step has ended.

  2. Do I need a username?

    By the looks of things, a big YES! to the Covid-19 pandemic payment and/or a lifetime on the dole. The last thing they will of course protest about.

    Some might call me extreme for suggesting temporary chemical castration for some of the, cough, “strong men” of this motley crew. Akin to an unruly dog, they would be much better for it.

  3. ce

    Don’t want to be tracked… might want to ware a face covering so ‘THEY’ can’t use facial recognition to track you… just saying….

  4. f_lawless

    I went along to the anti-restrictions march . I thought there was a real sense of liberation and buzz in the air as we walked through the city centre while bystanders looked on – some looked bemused, others cheered from out of car windows; another woman stood in solidarity with her arms stretched up into the air, beaming a big smile; a young man wearing a mask stood out off the path and gave the thumbs down to everyone as the march went past; on Dame street I heard the muffled words of “murderers, murderers!” being shouted by young obese masked man; on Aungier street, a Dublin bus driver who was in the stopped traffic honked in solidarity and waved which got a big cheer from the crowd

      1. f_lawless

        Are you sure this is not disinformation? The footage in the clip you linked to is clearly on Kildare Street but the march I was on today didn’t go down that street. It was guided by the Gardai around the south side of Stephen’s green, then it turned onto Baggot st, before going reaching the end point half way down Merrion St (Dept of Taoiseach). Seems more like your footage was from a different day. Either way not part of today’s march.

        There were plenty of parents with kids there today from what I observed

          1. Daisy Chainsaw

            Ordinary looking people marching behind known racists, threatening a media outlet for fact checking and publishing real news, not antimask woo. Just following… yeah!

          2. Ian-O

            Sorry, but matter how much you deny it, you’re now firmly in bed with with the right wing loons.

            No coming back from that. Same goes for Broadsheet, the amount of people I know who once read it but will not anymore – “yeah, its gone very alt right and gives a platform to conspiracy theorists, homophobes and amateur contrarians who dislike everything from women to immigrants”. I detest FFG/Lab/Greens myself so hardly an establishment shill.

            Very sad, this place used to be amazing, now its just cringy.

          3. Bodger

            Ian-o, you are misrepresenting us, f-lawless and most of the people who went on the march. Calling people racist for refusing to wear masks? If that’s the far left’s position they have completely lost their minds (along with a lot of votes).

          4. Daisy Chainsaw

            You march behind known nazis and threaten free speech because a media outlet corrected misinformation. You’re useful idiots making a bunch of scum look bigger and more important than they actually are. If you’re happy to go along with that, then you really have to take a good look at yourself and your beliefs.

          5. Pat Mustard

            The FG loving journal, being held up as the bible by hysterical Daisy.

            Go out and enjoy the weather ffs.

          6. Pat Mustard

            Yes, I should cite the council on foreign relations fact check sites as I’m such an Internet edgelord..

          7. Nigel

            Who were you going to vote for before Ian-O criticised you for standing in solidarity with racists against the wearing of masks during a public health crisis concerning an airborne virus? Who are you going to vote for now?

          8. V AKA Frilly Keane

            You know what I can’t come to terms with
            Is the intolerance and the hypocrisy
            And respect for an individual to hold any view that is not of their own

            We’re not two and half years past an overwhelming landslide to endorse our citizens right to decide their own healthcare options, for themselves
            Which followed another landslide to secure another equality benchmark

            Nobody started dissecting the groups and 000,000s in the Water protests with such polarising venom
            Or indeed the Rainbow Pride parades

            Why has being alongside people you don’t like, or share anything with, on a single issue that you might actually share suddenly have you identified as being one of the same
            In all aspects

            Should I be recognised as Gay, or a Vegan, an eFFer, a Prolifer, or a Bankrupt, because, like, I’m seen to be friends with, a supporter, a work associate, and have worked for all – and many more besides

            Like I said nobody separated out the Water Protesters
            Or the various end Homeless / right to housing marches

            This is not who we are
            All walks of life are here, and the more the merrier
            AFAIC
            And equally all walks of life are equally entitled to hold a view that is not of mine

            In the Cooperative Movement, the one absolute is that all members are Equal
            Equal
            Not just the ones who look and talk like me
            And believe me I have more haters there than I do here

            Let them all off
            And figure out a way to work, live and get along with who is in front of you
            That’s called tolerance btw

            Thousands of people gave up their Saturday to stand up and be counted
            For something

            That, wether you like it or not, deserves some modicum of tolerance

            And btw, I’ve been posting on forums since the cc: mail era
            Readers come and go all the time,

            There is no subscription here
            Or password entry

            Nor have we seen Broadsheet put the collection plate out as gaudlily as the Journal have been doing in the last 24 hours

            So there
            Have a good one everybody

            And I mean everybody
            Not just the ones that agree with me
            Or look and sound like me

            xV

          9. SOQ

            + V- well said- this is single issue politics just like all the others.

            Back in the day I worked with people in gay Belfast whom I would have been diagonally opposed to on national issues but we parked all that and put our collective shoulder to the wheel.

            Personally, I just don’t understand why the left are so in support of this shambolic mess the Government is making.

            The dreadful suffering of late diagnosed cancers, undernourishment, suicide, alcohol and substance abuse, redundancies, bankruptcies- all from this collapse in the economy, will directly impact the poor and the marginalised much more than any other group.

            Instead they are much more interested in eyeballing what they think is the ‘other side’ than actually standing up for the rights of those who need support most.

          10. Nigel

            None of that will be affected one way or the other by the wearing of masks, not even the question of how shambolic the government is or isn’t being. If you wanted to put shoulders to the wheel to hold the government to account for being shambolic, I can’t think of a worst way to start than by signing up to the US culture war and objecting to the wearing of masks, short of maybe objecting to the washing of hands.

          11. SOQ

            Importing a REAL US culture war was Black Lives Matter protests Nigel- which you fully supported.

            These anti Mandate protests are happening all over Europe- as evidenced by London and Berlin last weekend.

          12. V AKA Frilly Keane

            With the greatest respect Nidgie
            We’ve enough of our own Culture Wars already embedded here without needing to import claptrap from the World’s basket case
            ‘Merica

            Gaelic Games v Soccer v Rugby
            Fee paying schools v the rest
            Rural v Urban v Dublin
            Owners v Tenants
            The 5% v the rest of us

            In fact you’d be right to challenge these Latter Day Patriots groups on their importing foreign themes
            And not buying Irish
            Or even growing their own
            There is far to much rhetoric being introduced during this lockdown that is not ours, and is meaningless in any attempt to put right what really divides us on a day to day
            And all its doing is giving permission to the above demarcation lines to carry on like no-one’s watching

            Learn to tolerate
            Like it or not, When the Paddys come together and can agree a strong majority on something we become legends and change makers

            Olé, Olé, Olé lads

            Stop isolating fringe groups and characters that the electorate are more the capable of shunning when it actually matters.
            And stop painting everyone the same colour and hue as the lad next to them on the street

            It’s actually insulting that this is what it’s come to

          13. Nigel

            Yes, objecting to the extra-judicial murder of black people by the US police is the same as objecting to the wearing of masks during a publuc health emergency featuring an airborne virus for which there is no vaccine. You have completely lost the run of yourself.

          14. Nigel

            With the greatest repect Vinnie, I’m not the one you should be giving out to, that’s just shooting the messenger.

          15. V AKA Frilly Keane

            So BLM is the stone on which to pitch your case from Nidgie?
            Ok. I’ll respond. Don’t know why but I will

            The two protests yesterday had NOTHING to do with BLM
            You also failed to recognise that if it was, that the two sides would have different compositions
            And motivation to being there
            And that BLM speaks to many of us

            You specifically introduced MAGA
            Only now you are reaching for the BLM
            Guess what Nidgie, If there was no Lockdown or Pandemic, BLM would still have taken off
            And would have had solidarity in the hundreds of thousands here in Ireland. And thank :::k that’s the kind of Country I live in.

            Whereas now. Almost 6 months into a lockdown where our Government still have no exit strategy that they can all agree on and stick to
            People are reacting
            In all sorts of ways
            And from all sorts of historical traditional political & social starting positions, and walks of life

            Meanwhile our usual old reliable Social Markers , what you called Culture Wars
            Hurling/ rugby
            Clongows/ Mayfleld Community School
            6 bed unsuite with room for a tennis court / homeless Hubs
            What Ever …
            Are still cruising along while we’re not watching

            Diverting to BLM to make your case is lazy
            And cheap point scoring

            But if that’s what gets you through the day
            Have at it

          1. f_lawless

            No. After leaving the Latin Hall where the Journal’s office is, the march was held up by the guards for a short while before being allowed on. The police cleared one lane of traffic on Aungier St, Cuffe st, south sides of Stephens Green, part of Baggot st and then Merrion St, ushering us along the whole way. I guess that was the compromise reached.

          2. f_lawless

            Anyway that was my experience at least. I didn’t see any trouble at any point in the afternoon – and wasn’t aware if there was something else going on or not at Kildare St away from the main march

          3. GiggidyGoo

            The difference in accounts of it is that f_lawless was actually there, while Daisy made up something – Known Nazis?

    1. Alexander the Great

      What does the fact the guy was obese have to do with the other parts of the rant you have stated?

    1. Nigel

      What have they got against The Journal?
      (Incidentally, Bodger has told me a number of times i should go over to The Journal instead of commenting here. What’s that all about?)

      1. Daisy Chainsaw

        It factchecked them and found them wanting. BTL comments on the Journal are a cesspit of racism and have been for a long time, but clicks mean cash so they don’t discourage it.

          1. Scundered

            It’s because the Journal has become a left wing mirror of The Guardian, just more extremist narrative driven trash, regularly race baiting for clicks, and anyone that disagrees must obviously be racist bla bla bla

            Just another victim in the death throes of journalism

      2. Kate

        Ben Whachamacallhim had concluded from report submitted by HSE last week that 100 people without underlying conditions had died from covid. The Journal “fact checked” and concluded he was wrong.
        Hence protest moved to Journal seeking an apology and to retract the contradiction.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      There are conflicting reports from scientists about masks. Whatever side you pick, the other side are the ‘looney’ side.
      Masks are being pushed therefore in an attempt to give the impression that the Government(s) know what’s what – they have to be seen to be doing something, regardless of whether masks are good or bad.
      At the start of this pandemic, in Ireland, the Government had no problem with planeloads of Italians coming in from the hottest covid spot in Europe, or with horsey folk traveling to and from another covid hotspot. Likewise there was no discussion about the benefits of temperature testing of visitors at ports.
      Each of those have been proven incorrect approaches in the meantime.

      1. Nigel

        Of all the things you could stay calm about and see how it played out just in case it’s as benficial as people seem to think, the wearing of masks would surely be it. The amount of work that has to be done to raise any sort of strong negative feeling about them is extraordinary. Muzzles! Shweaty faces! A rare chance of some sort of infection if you have a cut you let fester and you never ever clean or change your mask! Temperature testing? Flights from italy? Yes! Lapses and lack of communication and outright negelect in the case of nurshing homes and Direct Provision centres? But masks? Getawayt’feck.

    2. Papi

      You can wear a bullet proof vest and still get shot. Wearing one, however, lessens the risk of dying.
      This is not rocket science.

  5. Ruille Buille

    I passed this gathering of incels, unemployables, swivel eyed loons in Golden Lane yesterday. They were screaming about ‘open the pubs!’ Is this what passes for political discourse these days?

    1. Ian-O

      You clearly have a pee fetish.

      You seem to wet yourself in mirth on a regular basis while constantly deriding others for “bed wetting”. But then you do seem like an angry, likely bearded, incel so you’re probably not the brightest either.

  6. Junkface

    After watching ‘The Social Dilemma’ last night, I can see from this thread that Irish society already has a growing problem with conspiracy theories, tribalism and online indoctrination. These are dangerous changes to society when it turns to violence in the city streets. I was horrified to see that lady being attacked by thugs with 2 x 4’s in the city in front of the Gards. This is new to Ireland, this is not healthy. When societies cannot agree on basic truths then things start to fall apart. We need to regulate and break up social media companies now.

    There is no difference between how young Muslims in the UK and France were indoctrinated by ISIS using social media and this.

  7. Formerly known as @ireland.com

    Let me know when there are ICU/A+E staff protesting against the lockdown. Until then, I recommend that all these anti-maskers go to the ICU and volunteer to help with the patients who are imagining they are ill. They can also ask the ICU staff how it feels to have their lives put at risk by idiots.

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