Easter Sunday, 2008

by . Sun Mar 23, 2008 20:36

.

Then and Now

Drummers

The Usual Suspects

More Friends of Tara

by . Sun Mar 23, 2008 20:42

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Is it?

by redjade Sun Mar 23, 2008 21:05

awesome work, michael - please do more series like this.

makes me miss dublin all the more :-)

by Terri Murray Tue Mar 25, 2008 14:52

"I was in Dublin on Easter Sunday last, 223rd March, 2008, with the intention of attending the State Commemorations of the 1916 Easter Rising. I had a banner with me to draw attention to the need to protect Tara from any further destruction, since this is the day when we in the 'Republic' of Ireland commemorate the dead generations, and listen to the Proclamation of Independence being read out. The banner had a picture of a pregnant woman and the slogan on it said, ‘Tara in crisis, protecting the heritage of the unborn.’

In another display of the erosion of democracy in this country, most members of the public, including myself, were cordoned off from seeing the ceremony outside the GPO by a cordon/barrier covered in black plastic and over 6ft high, which effectively made it impossible to see anything of what was going on. I was standing outside this cordon, on the footpath across from the GPO. I held the banner above my head just high enough for it to be seen inside the cordon.

After about 15 minutes or so holding up the banner, a photographer inside the cordoned area pulled down part of the black plastic partition so that he could see me and I could see him, and he told me that the police were on their way over to me.

After about 5 minutes or so, four policemen including one plainclothes policeman (detective ?) (that you can see in the photo above) approached me and started questioning me, looking at the banner, asking me what was I doing etc. Then they said, 'put down that banner'. I insisted that I wasn't breaking any law, standing on the footpath of the capital city of my own country, holding a banner.

They asked for my name and address and wrote them down.
Then the plainclothes policeman ordered me to put down the banner or get down to the end of O'Connell Street.
I asked him what the alternative was to the two choices that he had given me, and he said, if I did not do either of the above, he would forcibly remove me/arrest me.

He got very heated and worked up, trying to rush things, asking 'well, are you going to put down the banner or do you want to be arrested'

I continued to argue with him that he was out of order, constitutionally, as I was not breaking any law.

At this point, the proclamation was read out and I told the detective I wanted to stay where I was and listen to the proclamation. He refused. Then the National Anthem was played and I said I wanted to stand where I was for my National Anthem. Again, he refused.

Then the same photographer from earlier passed by and advised me, 'He can't arrest you if you keep moving'. I then said to the detective that I was going to walk up and down with my banner. I started walking down the footpath holding up the banner, and they kept walking along with me, at least one at each shoulder.

I also witnessed another incidence of Tara protectors being intimidated. When I was standing at the cordon holding the banner initially, two young guys came along and stood quite near me and started putting up a banner also. I saw that it was also a 'save tara' banner. I didn't know them and didnt get talking to them. We just acknowledged each other and were each silently hoping up our own banners.

When the guards came over, they also went over to the two guys and I could see them questioning them and taking their names. I lost track of them after that, because I was busy fighting my own corner. I met them very briefly afterwards and they said that the gardai had taken their banner from them.

I think it’s outrageous that they now feel free to come along in the middle of O'Connell St. and threaten to arrest concerned citizens for holding Tara awareness banners, in an effort to try to protect our own heritage.

God help the poor unfortunates in Tibet if they are depending on a government such as ours to speak in defense of their human rights."

Terri Murray

Protest

by TaraTaraTara Tue Mar 25, 2008 15:32

People were being searched bags and person going into the "Official" Easter Commeration. The area outside the GPO was cordoned off and passers by could only view proceedings through chinks in the 6ft black canvas over steel fencing that seperated them from those who underwent the indignity of the search to get in. They say there were @ 5000 at it, there wasnt. I doubt if there was even half that. No wide view of the crowd on RTE either just to prove my point. This sort of thing has never happened in Dublin before. What are they afraid of? Or what message are they trying to send.

In contrast the Republican March in the afternoon was open with speakers mingling with the crowd, posing for pics, signing autographs and the atmosphere was electric. The Musicians and Poets, the Drumming that coursed through the veins of the Marchers...this was the REAL March. Not the lip service of Bertie and his Dick Roche.

Many thanks to Gerry Adams for the surge of support for the Tara Campaigners and not just us, for Shell to Sea and for the health workers who will be marching next Saturday. And in his words, GET ACTIVE :) This is the spirit of 1916.

Photo Op

www.sacredireland.com

Questions

Colour Party

Gerry Adams Speach

by TaraTaraTara Tue Mar 25, 2008 15:43

Apologies, too much rushing!

www.sacredireland.org not com and yes I do know how to spell speech! :)

by Sean Oglach Tue Mar 25, 2008 16:20

The Deputy First Minster for the Northern Ireland Statelet was at the official commemoration having shunned those of his party preferring the company of the people who are selling off our National heritage for profit.
It's OK for Adams to pose for a photo with a Tara protester but what have SF actually done to halt the desecration of Tara?
Adams should really have been in West Belfast especially with everything that is going on there but instead he choose the relative safety of Dublin. Like McGuinness he seems to be avoiding the company of those who put them were they are, the people and the grassroot members of SF.

by Meltthecelt Tue Mar 25, 2008 16:22

Yes, friends and comrades all, the photos are very good. However, the most profound and salient bit of the day, for me, was the significant part of Gerry Adams speech when alluding to the valley; he condemned 'the destruction of the Tara/Skyrne Valley'. This was the first time that he actually used the language of denunciation and uttered in plain but direct language the situation. It heralds the fact that SF have finally woken up and is very heartening for someone who's been trying to get them to speak out for a long time! And Sean Crowe called on people to get involved, which was also a new departure, from my observations.

by WT Tue Mar 25, 2008 17:27

Do you actually believe that Adams would have made the same speech if he were, as was his desire a member of a coalition government? I very much doubt it, there was a time when members of $inn Fein would have been told to show their faces at picket lines in support of protesters and strikers but look how it turned out in relation to the striking classroom assistants in the North when they got into government.
It's well and good Adams making speeches but with his track record of saying one thing and doing another I believe that the tunnels you have dug around Tara could well be the Southterrains of the future while you wait on his party to do something positive.

by SF tara supporter Tue Mar 25, 2008 17:39

iam a member of SF and have been regularly down to tara over the last year. i don't spit on other people who's face i havn't seen down there, i do what ever small bit i can to push the issue forward. i think the previous poster should try that.

by Wt Tue Mar 25, 2008 17:51

$inn Fein have no problem backing issues until they actually get into government and a position to act upon it then it's another matter.
We had the classroom assistants but lets try Water charges, they opposed that until they got into government, now it is they who are implementing them.
The fact is if $inn Fein were in government in the South you wouldn't be allowed anywhere near Tara.

by Malachy Tue Mar 25, 2008 17:58

Yeah, we should listen to you. Not actual members of the party, or the president of the party. You know better.

For you the fight is not against the powers that are actually destroying Tara, it's much more important to make snide comments about those that are trying to stop it.

by WT Tue Mar 25, 2008 19:09

Malachy, I am not trying to force anyone to listen, especially those who don't want to hear, I am merely making a point. I don't profess to know better than anyone, what I do know is what I see and have seen having been a member of the Provos and $inn Feign before they metamorphosed into the new Fianna Fail.
I am not attacking anyone trying to save Tara, I whole-heartedly support them but I am merely pointing out that there are those who desire to become part of the powers that wish to destroy Tara who while they now claim to back your cause would be your opponent if they were to be in government.
Another example is the Donnybrewer Road outside of Derry where whole families, some who have lived there for generations are being evicted, so that Micheal O Leary of Ryanair can have a longer runway.
Who is evicting them, why none other than the SDLP and $inn Fein controlled council.

by ffs Tue Mar 25, 2008 19:40

Tara supporters do that cause no favours by linking i with any of the leinster house/dublin government parties, you reward and excusethe very people involved in Taras destruction. The are all one.

by Terry Tue Mar 25, 2008 20:00

Let each of us do what we can for Tara in a positive way. Throwing insults and negative energy at others does nothing positive for anything or anyone. Please focus on what you can do for Tara.

by Terri Tue Mar 25, 2008 20:01

Look, I respect and understand that some of you are current or former members of Sinn Fein, and therefore have a lot of experience and strong feelings about Sinn Fein politics. But with regard to Tara, the important thing is getting that road rerouted away from the valley and highlighting what is going on out there. A lot of people don't realise the destruction that's been done and will be done. WT, it really doesn't matter at this stage if Gerry Adams would or wouldn't act differently if he was in government. What's important is that prominent people speak out now, whoever they may be. So, like Meltthecelt says, it was great to hear Gerry Adams coming out plainly and denouncing the destruction of the Tara/Skryne Valley without mincing his words. Believe me, it's so refreshing to hear it spoken out, because, let's face it, no other political leader has done that in recent times. Mind you, I feel it's high time that he did. But, he did it on Sunday and let's hope for more of the same.

by Irish Citizen Not A Subject Wed Mar 26, 2008 19:10

It is always a symptom of the end of a regime,
when more and more measures have to be taken to protect
the unrepresentative elite from the ordinary citizens.

That some state functionary actually thought that a protest
by an Irish citizen, at the GPO, had to be justified,
shows how much these functionaries are ignorant of the
existence of Bunreacht na hÉireann.

This document says that we the Irish people grant ourselves rights.
We do not have to go cap in hand to some authority or monarch
to be granted the right to protest.

SO WHY WOULD ANY TRUE IRISH PERSON WANT TO REPLACE
OUR CONSTITUTION WITH THE WASTE OF PAPER THAT IS
THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION (aka The Lisbon Treaty)!