Reply from Paul Gogarty

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday March 24, 2003 21:31 by Mark - SP

This is the reply I got to an e-mail I sent to Gogarty re: his standing by while protesters got beaten up.

Dear Mark,

Thank you for bothering to e-mail me.

Just to put the situation in perspective: There was a large queue of
cars
waiting to get out following the Dail vote. These included anti-war
anti-shannon
voters such as Dan Boyle and Joe Higgins. The Gardai had instructions
to move
people. Hence I thought it would be better if people showed the
courtesy of
moving themselves as it would give the gathering an air of maturity and
responsibility.

I admit that when I came out I was not aware that some people had
chained
themselves together and were lying on the ground. So I asked people to
move
slightly because I thought that it would be anti-productive for people
to block
those who were on the same side. I wouldn't have said what I said had I
realised
that because obviously you can't just move people chained together.
After
someone pointed out that people were chained I spoke with some of the
Guards and
told them to take it easy on lifting people. Most of them did, in
fairness,
given the fact that they had orders.They were going to move them no
matter,
let's get it straight. There was no violent attack by the Guards. They
were put
in a position and they dealt with it, albeit not necessarily in the
best way
they could.

I personally saw one of the people on the ground kick a Guard, who then
wrongly
kicked back. Something I then complained about. I don't know what your
views are
on the most effective way to stop the war, but there were a number of
people in
the afternoon crowd whose tactics I disagree with. Direct action can be
effective but only in the right context. It must be non-violent and it
must be
targeted. The media will cover things the way they want to cover them
and any
talk of paint or clashes with the Gardai will alienate the majority of
people
who turned out on the 15th of February. As someone who wants to see
Shannon
stopped and this illegal war, I believe the only way is to unite ALL
the people.
So one has to be careful about what is done. I disagree with hatchet
jobs on
planes and breaking into Shannon. Chaining oneself to the fence I agree
with. I
will give a similar example. As someone who doesn't eat meat and is
concerned
about animal rights I do not think that smashing in butchers windows is
the way
to convince the average person to think about suffering.

I believe that attacking FF politicians with paint, particularly ones
with
excellent records in Kosovo, is counterproductive. I also believe
blocking the
Dail entrance, where other people work besides politicians is
counterproductive.
A few inches more would have let people out while still making the
point. But I
believe that the aim (not necessarily yours) was to deliberately
antagonise the
Gardai who are sworn to protect the state (some are bastards, but most
of the
ones I know are decent). It's great to have a few heroes and martyrs
for the
cause. I disagree with this because I think it detracts from the cause
and if
you want to get annoyed about it, you are entitled to vent your spleen
at me.

But on a final note, it might be useful to think about the bigger
picture and
the best strategy to put pressure on our incompetent Government. I hope
you see
where I am coming from. But if you don't agree at least I hope you
acknowledge
that we are both on the same side.

With best wishes,

Paul Gogarty

ps -I don't know if you were at the protest all day, but at 9am it was
me who
got the photocopies of the protest letter and statement that was handed
in by
Tim Hourigan. I also addressed the demo at around 12:20. It was in that
context
that I felt an obligation to ask people to move a foot or so before the
Guards
moved them (again acknowledging that I didn't know they were chained,
just
thought they were lying down). I didn't just turn up out of the blue,
but a lot
of the crowd around at the time were not there for the 12pm stoppage.