Climate activists with the extremist organisation Extinction Rebellion have glued themselves to the Dublin offices of the world’s biggest asset management firm, in protest of the company’s investment in fossil fuels.
Protesters targeted the offices of American multinational BlackRock in Ballsbridge, Dublin, super-gluing their hands to the front of the building.
Organisers cited the “climate crisis” as the reason for the protest, saying that “we can’t just stand by and allow giant, wealthy corporations like BlackRock to jeopardise our chances” to avert catastrophe.
At least one protester involved was a UCD student, Sinead Whelan, who said that these tactics were used because they had proved effective elsewhere.
Speaking to RTÉ, BlackRock said in a statement: “The money we manage is not our own – it belongs to our clients, many of whom make their own asset allocation and portfolio construction decisions.
“BlackRock’s role in the transition to a low-carbon economy is as a fiduciary: we provide choice to our clients; we seek the best risk-adjusted returns within the mandate our clients give us; and we underpin our work with research, data, and analytics.”
This is not the first time Extinction Rebellion activists have engaged in extreme tactics to achieve their goals in Ireland. In 2021 two activists were found guilty of live-streaming a graffiti attack on the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Dublin.
Extinction Rebellion activists guilty of graffiti attack on Department of Foreign Affairs https://t.co/nilQ49pmAl
— breakingnews.ie (@breakingnewsie) July 12, 2022
Extinction Rebellion are just one of a number of climate radical groups, including Just Stop Oil, that routinely engage in illegal activities, include vandalism, to spread their political message.
In August of 2021, almost 200 Extinction Rebellion activists were arrested in London after dozens of protestors glued their hands together in a large human chain, blocking off the area around the Brazilian embassy and several other buildings. Others lay on the road and padlocked themselves together using steel tubes to make themselves harder to remove.
This was done “to show solidarity with indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest.”
Almost 200 people have been arrested in London for a variety of offences at a protest organised by extremist climate action group Extinction Rebellion.#gripthttps://t.co/dovqBP86Q7
— gript (@griptmedia) August 26, 2021
That same year, one of the group’s founders was arrested in the UK for conspiracy to cause criminal damage after members attacked two London banks.
https://mobile.twitter.com/griptmedia/status/1392432327989530625
Around the same time the American branch of the group dumped over a dozen wheelbarrows of cow manure outside the White House, arguing that US President Joe Biden’s climate policy was “bullsh*t” and not radical enough.
Extremist climate group Extinction Rebellion has dumped over a dozen wheelbarrows of cow manure outside the White House to draw attention to President Joe Biden’s “bullsh*t” climate policy, which they say is not radical enough.
READ MORE: https://t.co/e1bIeHiYwF#gript pic.twitter.com/fQjHcUS1pV
— gript (@griptmedia) April 22, 2021
In 2020 UK counter-terrorism police branded the group an “extremist ideology.”
Terrorism police list Extinction Rebellion as extremist ideology https://t.co/Zi87tIMujn
— The Guardian (@guardian) January 10, 2020
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