On Tuesday, Richard Boyd-Barrett and Paul Murphy rose in the Dáil to say that women who had been arrested during a sit-down protest at the Dáil on Monday had been strip-searched by An Garda Síochana while in custody.
In response, Gardaí say that searches were in line with regulations on the treatment of persons in custody, and vehemently deny claims that the women were subjected to a “cavity search”, which is in layman’s terms a physical search of their vagina.
To be clear: A cavity search is denied by the Gardai, but the lesser “strip search” is not specifically denied – just that the searches “were in line with regulations”.
As someone who was strip-searched in a cell when I was younger by Gardaí after being arrested for refusing to take down a pro-life stand, I can testify that it is a humiliating and thoroughly nasty experience. In fact, I would argue that, unless a garda is looking for drugs or some ridiculously small weapon – and in my case they definitely weren’t – the whole point of the exercise seems to be to degrade and upset you. It is unjustifiable.
Before you all write in to point out that the hard left in Ireland would never, ever criticise the state for harming pro-lifers (see, for example, their cheerleading of outrageous laws seeking to lock up silent protests) – and would most likely take visceral enjoyment in Gardaí being heavy-handed against protests on issues like immigration, yes, I know that already. But I don’t share their spiteful outlook on the world. Wrong is wrong, whoever is suffering the consequences.
The women making the claim in this instance, Mothers Against Genocide, were protesting the continuing bombardment of Gaza. I happen to agree that said bombardment is indefensible. And while the issue being protested shouldn’t be of consequence when it comes to free speech and free assembly, the reality is, it seems to me, that often it is.
It’s why young people who broke the Covid Lockdown rules found themselves being baton-charged by Gardaí, in an over-reaction that was likely prompted by dire warnings from on high that people were being encouraged by the good weather and sheer boredom to break the rules – rules we now know were largely ridiculous in the first place. In my view, the Gardaí weren’t so much being influenced by the public mood as by the mood of the establishment, which had decided a clamp down was needed.
The same heavy-handedness so evident in Newtownmountkennedy – Gardaí pepper-spraying local people, acting with unjustified aggression, roaring at people to get back into their houses as if we were under martial law – also seemed to me to be much more about enforcing the establishment’s policy on immigration than upholding the law.
I recognise it because its what I experienced that sunny day in Grafton Street when Garda vans pulled up to arrest us. The political establishment, led by the media, were increasingly hostile to pro-life protesters, and were using the Public Order Act as a dubious basis to close down pro-life stalls. The self-appointed civil liberties groups were peculiarly silent on the matter, as they have been ever since when it suits them to see the freedoms they are meant to protect being trampled on.
We were told to move. Being young and feisty, and wanting to assert our right to protest on a pedestrianised street, we refused. We were told we’d be arrested so we sat down on the ground. Nothing out of the ordinary; perfectly legitimate protesting tactics. But the gardaí had clearly decided we needed to be taught some sort of lesson.
We were arrested. In the garda van, we were told to sit. I stood up to make some ineffective but impassioned plea about freedom to protest and the protection of human life, and a female garda slapped me, hard, across the face. I still remember the sting and the sound of the slap, and my face suffusing with heat and pain, not because I’m traumatised or anything, but because it was so unexpected it has stayed in my memory.
We were brought to Pearse Street station in the garda vans. At this distance, the whole farce seems all the more ridiculous, but clearly there was a purpose to what was happening. When we were put into the cells, the four young women – and only the young women – were strip-searched. It was pretty nasty. We were told that if we didn’t take off our clothes they’d be forcibly removed.
One of the girls was put in a separate cells to the rest of us. She resisted the strip search at first, appalled at the intrusion into her privacy for no valid reason. The gardaí were absurdly hostile and heavy-handed. We could hear her crying which, of course, brought all of us to upset, enraged, helpless tears. There was clearly no purpose to the whole fairly vicious exercise except for to degrade and humiliate us. It was an exercise in political policing.
I don’t know what happened to the women arrested at the Dáil last Wednesday, but they say that they were stripped, forced to remove underwear, and one woman says “her private parts were touched and looked inside” and she was subjected to a “cavity search”. The gardaí – as noted above – vehemently deny that any such cavity search happened, but there have been calls from TDs and campaign groups for an investigation.
It may be the case that, despite the increased suffering and horror in Gaza, the attention of the political establishment has wandered to other issues, including the endless hand-wringing and hapless head-spinning about Trump’s Tariffs. Protesters can find that when this happens, a change in attitude can be perceived from those who enforce the law, but also have leeway in their decision to treat you as a nuisance to be deterred rather than a legitimate protester.
This shouldn’t happen. Either all peaceful protest is legitimate or none of it is. Strip searches should only take place if drugs or weapons are suspected and the necessary safeguards and procedures are in place. Reviews should query the necessity of those that do take place. If
I have sympathy for gardaí who are often left to deal with drug-addled, crazy, violent people while the rest of us demand transparency and accountability, but its precisely because they are held to such a high standard that they must address these allegations.
If they have nothing to hide, then they should fear no investigation. Otherwise allegations go unanswered, and abuses of the system – and of fundamental rights – go unchecked. And, again, yes I know that Richard Boyd Barrett would likely rather have the hell he doesn’t believe in freeze over than speak up for his political opponents in this situation. But, again, that doesn’t matter. We can’t have the fear of being strip-searched act as a deterrent in asserting the right that everyone of us should have to protest.