Stop the City - Galway
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news report 
Wednesday April 09, 2003 13:37
by On the streets
Galway city centre traffic came to a standstill yesterday as the junction of Eglington St and Eyre Sq was blockaded by a small number of Galwegians (mostly women and kids) to oppose the presence of warmongers Blair & Bush in Northern Ireland.
While the RUC/PSNI were batton-charging people off the streets of Belfast, the Galway Gardai were taking the “sure ladies, would ye not be makin’ a mountain outta a molehill” line, as they tried to talk us onto the pavement. Passers by were pretty supportive, in particular the workmen who joined in the drumming and whistling by taking their hammers to wood. No respect to the local tourist bus ("come see the sights of Gaillaimh.....") who tried to plough through the banner nearly injuring people in the process. The blockade finished after around ten minutes to the cheers of onlookers who maybe next time may join in! Pics to follow.....................
Also today, the Global Women’s Strike will be holding a cacerolada outside Mill St gardai station at 1pm to remind the Gardai what their implicated in, to call on them to refuse to do police work in Shannon and to refuse to arrest us for civil disobedience. Bring yer own pots n’ pans and a spoon to bang them with!
Comments (7 of 7)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Cities are sooooo bad. I live in a cave with the rest of my collective in Donegal.
This kind of silly activity is getting up everybodys nose lately. Can you not let the people of Galway go about their business? Why block the street? A few weeks ago I got delayed by the same kind of dumhead protest when I was bringing a family member to the A&E unit in a local hospital.
After 20 mins sitting in traffic I walked up to the protestors who told me to 'f*** off' and such crap like 'what about the hospitals in Baghdad?'. I was called a 'Bush lover' a 'cop lover' and a 'Pat Kenny listener' amongst other things.
I didnt want a war either, but I respect my fellow citizens.
Now that the war is almost over (and it worked out quite well), why can't those who want to protest do so in a less thuggush, agressive and insulting manner.
if someone called you names that was stupid. but there is a war and we can't accept the logic that is business as usual while the irish government is aiding adn abetting the warmongers who are slaughtering innocent people. they had to disrupt the normal life of ordinary citizens to get rid of slavery, state capitalism, stop the vietnam war, end segregation in the usa...
Great stuff!
And mandy cop on to yourself, it was minor disturbance in the scheme of things. The whole point of these types of demos is to try and wake people out of their slumber, and make the fact that the war is happening a daily part of their lives. To force them to think about it and make decisions about where they stand and what they think of our governments illegal collaboration (and no matter which side your on, you can't deny its illegal under current law)
We ARE the people of Galway....and Dublin and England and Spain and America and Iraq too and we ARE going about our business.
Yesterday, a child woke up in Baghdad asking where his arms were. Yesterday, a man crouched over a 'bunker bomb' crater looking for the body of his daughter whilst his wife and five children lay in the morgue. Yesterday, three non-embedded journalists were blown to bits for non-compliance. Yesterday, bush & blair made decisions on our soil that will inflict similar heartbreak and suffering for an already decimated population. Yesterday, we blocked the streets.
like stopping the city on a Tuesday when it would have some economic impact, instead of a Saturday when it has none. Of course these Dubs dont want to upset their chamber of commerce and Bertie!
I suppose you thought it was okay for the Gardai to manhandle peaceful protestors outside the Dail last Wednesday because they had a sit-down on Kildare Street and for the RUC/PSNI to viciously attack yet again perfectly protestors who were staging a sit-down in Belfast yesterday.
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