NGO ALLIANCE CONTINUES PROTEST OUTSIDE FOREIGN AFFAIRS OFFICE

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday March 26, 2003 20:05 by Paul Cummins - Indymedia chewy at redbrick dot dcu dot ie

Weekly protests every Tuesday outside the Foreigns Affairs Dept starting at 5pm.

Every Tuesday and most Saturdays the NGO Alliance has been protesting outside the Foreign Affairs Department at Iveagh House. Mostly elder members of charities they have protested and campaigned on many issues for the past decades. These actions have not been as widely advertised as others but have been consistent presence at all the protests.

I was told that when this group some dressed as Death tried to get onto O'Connell Bridge in view of the TV cameras they were booed off by parents because they said that their large banner was blocking the children’s view and ruining their day.

A lot of people have been asking why Ireland being the usual centre of attention on the 17th had not held larger demonstrations and again its seems that parents wanted to bring their children out for a fun day in the sun and on that day this was most important to them. This was also predicted by most of the main anti-war organisations and they chose not to force it, and any other campaigns were mostly ignored by mainstream media.

Members of the NGO Alliance described how they moved over to in front of Clerys Department store on Dublin’s main street shadowed by Gardai at all times. Members of the police’s Special Branch were called and gently searched the members of the protest giving the reason that as they were in costume and somehow part of the parade that they were to be searched as was every other part of the parade. Some members of the protest were aggrieved with this while others were reasonably happy with their treatment from the police.