Following the news that thousands of people in Dublin had gathered to protest the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died last week in Minneapolis after a police officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes, the appeared to support the protesters when he sent a tweet late last night saying that “racism was a virus” and that “we need to show solidarity” and “come together”. His office has not made any other statement on the matter.
https://twitter.com/AndyMcCourt32/status/1267568945516679169
Tony Holohan, Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer, was today far less supportive of the idea of the public coming together, saying that the protests were a risk to human life.
Responding to a question put to him by David Quinn Mr Holohan said that, ““we have advice in place to avoid mass gatherings because we think that could increase the risk of transmission of the virus”, and that “for a significant percentage of people it represents a risk to life. It represents a risk to severe illness and hospitalization.”
Mr Holohan said that he understood “that there is a desire in the public to move on” but that now “is not the right time to be attending events” no matter how “well meaning”.
The protest is a insult to the people that have lost their lives to this virus, and the families that could not give a loving goodbye to loved one's, could not hold a wake,and the many that could not attend family funerals cos they lived within the health guidelines, shame on you
— @mdmak33 (@mdmak33) June 1, 2020
The public reaction to the Taoiseach’s statement on Twitter was not overly positive, with many users expressing anger that he was not talking a firmer stance on the matter given the sacrifices the public have made in order to contain the spread of COVID-19. Others pointed out his comment made it appear that he supported the breaking of the lockdown and asked how he could expect the public to continue abiding by those restrictions if he himself appeared to be tacitly approving of the breaking of them.
https://twitter.com/cauliflower26/status/1267568902579552256
Gardai have announced that they are currently investigating the gathering. It’s understood that they collected the names and details of the event’s organizers during the event, but made no move during the event to stop it despite it appearing to be a flagrant breach of the COVID-19 guidelines.
So @LeoVaradkar agrees there is little or no risk of catching Covid in mass gatherings, so we can all go back to the “old normal” from tomorrow. Unless he publically condemns todays protest and mass gathering,he clearly thinks it’s ok for us all to go to phase 5. Cheers Leo https://t.co/cBRbQbjgjp
— Niall Boylan (@Niall_Boylan) June 1, 2020
Further protests, both in Dublin and outside, have been announced.
https://twitter.com/DunneDec/status/1267583531015901184
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