This week has seen extraordinary and unsettling scenes across Dublin city, as Gardaí drew batons to clear young drinkers off South William Street, and clamped down on other parts of the city.
Apparently groups of young people were forced to leave St Stephen’s Green and other areas, so they all drifted down to South William Street where they then were packed into a small space by the hundred, where they, naturally enough, threw all sense of Covid-caution to the wind.
Gardai say they were reacting to missiles being thrown, but the optics of using batons on young, fairly harmless-looking young people were pretty terrible – and were not improved by the machinations of the public order squad closing down Grafton Street and its environs the following day.
The Garda Public Order unit form a barrier to seal off the top of Dawson street. The top of Grafton street has also been sealed off by uniformed officers @rtenews pic.twitter.com/fYi2PZungr
— Samantha Libreri (@SamanthaLibreri) June 5, 2021
The government’s much-heralded “summer outdoors” has got off to a disastrous start, and the scramble to provide more bins and portaloos won’t do much to improve the situation. People want to get back to meeting up and socialising. It has been evident for months that Covid is not the Black Plague.
Two hours up the road, people in the north of Ireland are free to go to pubs and restaurants. But our unelected masters at Nphet have decided that Ireland must stay in the longest lockdown in Europe in what seems like forever, and that we can’t be trusted in pubs or with inside dining. We’ll have none of that carry on here.
Peadar Tóibín TD summed up what many people were thinking: no-one agrees with throwing stuff at Gardaí or leaving shopping streets in a mess, but when the government keeps everything shut and tells everyone to drink outside, well, things can get messy.
All the the people with Covid in Hospital in Ireland would fit on 1 Double Decker Bus.
Yet people were baton charged in Dublin last night and
Pubs and Restaurants wont open indoors for another month. #ItsTimeForCommonSense#OpenHospitality #southwilliamst #Aontú
— Peadar Tóibín TD (@Toibin1) June 5, 2021
Tóibín has been an outspoken critic of government mismanagement of the Covid crisis, so he has credibility when it comes to the issue. It was laughable, however, to see parties like Sinn Féin and the Socialist Party express outrage at the Gardaí baton-charging drinkers when they were largely supportive of measures being taken against anti-lockdown protestors just months ago.
Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, the Social Democrats and the rest have been calling for Zero Covid measures all along, only suddenly flip-flopping very recently when they realised it was fast becoming a vote-loser. Where was the new-found concern for the right to assemble when Irish citizens- mostly ordinary, working-class people – were being beaten off the streets for opposing the restrictions just months ago.
In fact, most lefty-liberals on social media were quick to exult in the Garda actions against anti-lockdown protests – describing batons raining down blows on protestors as the police “bashing the fash”. These are the same people that believe they are anti-establishment. They are a joke.
Commentator Robert Burke hit the nail on the head in this tweet.
“The people who demanded these restrictions for months, cheered on Gardaí when they baton charged anti-lockdown protesters and took part in the smear campaign calling them far-right are now trying to wash their hands of the role they played. The Zero Covid left shifting rapidly,” he said.
The people who demanded these restrictions for months, cheered on Gardaí when they baton charged anti-lockdown protesters and took part in the smear campaign calling them far-right are now trying to wash their hands of the role they played. The Zero Covid left shifting rapidly.
— Robert Burke (@robertburke84) June 6, 2021
That’s exactly right. The Gardaí are being placed in a no-win situation trying to police an impossible and obviously farcical set of restrictions.
Those who cheered when anti-lockdown protests were being subjected to baton-charges can drop their pretend outrage at what’s happening now. Their rank hypocrisy should not go unchallenged.