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THIS MORNING ABOUT 150 people gathered outside Leinster House for the Dáil Lockout Protest.
The ‘Lock the government out of the Dáil’ protest was organised in response to people’s disillusionment with the government and against austerity.
Members of the public gathered at both gates of Leinster House, while gardaí stood guard at the barricades.
In the middle of the crowd stood one man with a speakerphone, Dominick Gaughran. One would think he was one of the organisers, but no, he is just a regular worker, he said.
Dominick Gaughran speaking at the protest today.
Gaughran, a firefighter from Wexford said he travelled to Dublin today to voice his anger at the government. He said he began to take an interest in politics about two years ago, when the economy was doing particularly bad. He joined Sinn Fein briefly, but soon realised they were not the party for him.
“I was desperate to make a change, to try and make a difference. My family is a single income family and we are struggling. Everyone, including me, has had to tighten our belts, and thankfully we have gotten on top of things now, but I can’t sit by idly and not do something,” he said.
George McAnaspie travelled to Dublin with Dominick today. He said:
In the 80s, I had to travel to the US due one recession and when I returned I was right back into another one. More than 80,000 kids have had to emigrate and it is just low to hear the rhetoric being bandied about that it is an ‘opportunity’ for them. I know all about it – I’ve been there.These kids are struggling over there, struggling to get jobs, living undocumented and depending on a sympathetic network of Americans to help them out.
Disability cuts
Carol Flanagan from Galway also travelled up to Dublin today to be at the gates at Leinster House this morning.
Holding a photo of her deceased daughter, she said she was there to protest against the disability cuts. As a carer for her daughter, she said the cuts that have been done to disability allowances have had a huge effect on people across the country and said people should “take no more”.
Another protester, Helen Murray received a round of applause from the group when she crossed the road holding a piece of paper with “one angry mother” written in red pen.
Helen Murray outside the Dáil this morning.
“I am here today to protest against austerity and the cuts being imposed on us. I would like to see the politicians have to live and support a family on the wage I am on. They are in there laughing at us,” said Murray.
Turnout
She added that she was rather disappointed with the turnout. “I would have liked to see more people here today. I travelled up from Kilkenny on the bus today. I could have spent that €15 on something else, on three meals for my family this week, but I decided to come here. People are whining about the state of the country, but there has to be a point where people say they have had enough and come out on the streets”.
Mark Fitzsimmons travelled from Navan to be at the protest today. Fitzsimmon has had both his eyes removed and says he knows all too well about the cuts to disability.
Holding his cane in one hand and a speakerphone in the other, Fitzsimmons said there have been “cruel cuts” to everyone, adding that the government had unjustly attacked the elderly and the vulnerable.
Martin O’Rourke from Navan said he took the day off to be at the protest today and said he wanted more people to come out on the streets today, in a peaceful manner, he added.
“They [the government] know that we are complacent and they are taking advantage of that. Everyone needs to fight the cuts, in some way, we all must find a way to rebel, be it big or small”.
Here is Carol Flanagan, Helen Murray, Mark Fitzsimmons and Martin O’Rourke on why they wanted to protest today:
You can view a livestream of the protest here.
There will be another update on how the protest is going later in the afternoon, so stay tuned…
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So how long more will we allow these corrupt bastards to practice their “beliefs”
Then listen to the Catholic Church lie as it claims to be pro family.
How is ripping new born babies away from their mothers a family value?
They were bastard children removed from their immoral unmarried mothers and sent to be adopted by ‘real’ families. Back then an unmarried mother and a child was not considered a family. They did the same here with babies being send to be adopted all over the world but Irish American couples paid a lot of money for such babies.
How anyone could stand up for his disgusting cult is beyond me. They did the same here in the laundries and sold the babies to Americans!!! The sooner that cult is gone the world will be a better place. And not only do they protect child rapists they are also child traffickers!!!
My sentiments exactly
SORRY! Do they understand the meaning of the word ?
Catholic church up to no good again I see..
And still there collection baskets will be full this weekend,
The poor brain-washed aul women they rob every Sunday…
Not by me or mine.
What a horrible world this can be…
Seriously – if this was ANY other business/company/group of people, this utter rotten organisation would have been ordered shut down some time ago.
Same thing going on in Spain http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/world/europe/07iht-spain07.html
19 hours ago an article on this website flagged children currently in danger in Ireland. There are now only seven comments, split between understanding the difficulties the professionals face in these situations and anger that children are suffering. In the 4 hours since this story was printed, there are 13 comments here, all very angry about a horrible system and terrible wrongs that were done between the 50s and the 70s on a different continent. All valid comments, all made with passion and concern, I have no problems with them.
However, the lack of reaction to the current Irish story – which we are capable of doing something about – is a story in itself. What will the reports of our childrens generation say about us? Who will apologise for our treatment of the most vulnerable and will our apologies be as acceptable to them as the churchs are to us today?
Apologies are cheap, easy and largely meaningless. If one is truly sorry, one makes amends. These 150,000 grieving women had at least 150,000 babies, some of whom were apparently exposed to the drugs that their mothers were given and are now reported to be linked to cancer. For sure these 150,000 children were exposed to the trauma experienced by their mothers. These 300,000 victims deserve tangible help now. Though the offenses may have been years ago, many of these mothers, we believe, are still suffering; many of these babies, now adults, may be suffering birth trauma or trauma from poor/abusive placements. There is no accounting of these childrens’ fate.
We find it very hard to believe that the head of Catholic Health Australia “became aware of the past practices after the ABC began its investigations.” We strongly suspect that he and other church officials knew of this horror long ago but kept it hidden.
If Catholic officials won’t do what’s right for the health and well being of these 300,000 victims, we urge governmental officials to step in and force them to take responsibility for their decades of callous wrong-doing.
Steven Spaner, SNAP Australia Coordinator [ http://www.snapaustralia.org ], SNAPspaner@gmail.com
David Clohessy, SNAP Director [ http://www.snapnetwork.org ], SNAPClohessy@aol.com
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