2010 student protest in Dublin
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The 2010 student protest in Dublin was a demonstration that took place in the centre of the city on 3 November 2010 in opposition to a proposed increase in university registration fees, further cuts to the student maintenance grant and increasing graduate unemployment and emigration levels caused by the
28th Government of Ireland 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...
. Organized by the
Union of Students in Ireland The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) ( ga, Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn) is the national representative body for Tertiary education, third-level students' unions in Ireland. Founded in 1959, USI represents more than 374,000 students in over ...
(USI) and students unions nationwide, it saw between 25,000 and 40,000 protesters on the streets of central Dublin during what ''
The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
'' described as "the largest student protest for a generation". The protestors came from all over Ireland – students from most third-level colleges featured, as did some protestors from Queen's University Belfast – with many travelling to the city by coach. It took more than an hour and a half for all the protestors to walk from Parnell Square to
Government Buildings Government Buildings ( ga, Tithe an Rialtais) is a large Edwardian period, Edwardian building enclosing a quadrangle on Merrion Street in Dublin, Ireland, in which several key offices of the Government of Ireland are located. Among the offices o ...
in
Merrion Street Merrion Street (; ) is a major Georgian street on the southside of Dublin, Ireland, which runs along one side of Merrion Square. It is divided into Merrion Street Lower (north end), Merrion Square West and Merrion Street Upper (south end). It ...
, a short distance. Some protestors and gardaí engaged in clashes following the protest, with an unidentified number of people being wounded and three gardaí sustaining minor injuries; two arrests were made. The two men who were arrested were in their twenties and charged with
criminal damage Property damage (or cf. criminal damage in England and Wales) is damage or destruction of real or tangible personal property, caused by negligence, willful destruction, or act of nature. It is similar to vandalism and arson (destroying proper ...
and a
breach of the peace Breach of the peace, or disturbing the peace, is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the several jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct. Public ord ...
respectively. The Department of Finance was occupied by protestors for a time, and 36 complaints of police brutality were made of which just over half were admitted; these led to a further march by students seven days later with the intention to "end garda brutality". Presseurop wondered the day after thousands of students marched on the streets of Dublin: "Has Ireland awoken?" and said the protest had "Giv nthe lie to general opinion that the economically stricken nation has taken swingeing austerity measures with passive resignation". "Scenes bizarrely similar" occurred in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
one week later.


Background

The
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's Ireland Correspondent Mark Simpson noted that most demonstrations in Ireland had been "angry rather than violent". One example he alluded to occurred two days before students demonstrated when Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney was successfully pelted with red paint by an opposition politician in a protest intended to highlight the "blood budget" which "will result in the unnecessary and avoidable deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people over the coming years"; this incident occurred while she was attempting to open a mental healthcare facility in Dublin. But Simpson also wrote that "It is unlikely that their tudentsdemonstration will make any difference. ..They he Irish governmentwill be hoping that young people will eventually accept hat Ireland has no money After all, most students know what it feels like to be broke".


March and further events

According to ''The Irish Times'', the protest was "powerful, uplifting – and very peaceful". It commenced from Parnell Square at 13:00. T-shirts bearing slogans such as "Education not Emigration" were worn by many protestors. Students from Queen's University Belfast joined their counterparts on the streets of Dublin for the protest in return for support given to their own protest at Stormont two days earlier. Forty minutes later, some protestors left the march route at Nassau Street and approached Dáil Éireann's front gates on
Kildare Street Kildare Street () is a street in Dublin, Ireland. Location Kildare Street is close to the principal shopping area of Grafton Street and Dawson Street, to which it is joined by Molesworth Street. Trinity College lies at the north end of the ...
. Some scaled poles and items were thrown through the gates. March organisers sent them back to the main protest. Several dozen protestors entered the Department of Finance's lobby at 15:00 and commenced occupation. Authorities removed some and barricaded the remainder inside. More students gathered outside the entrance where authorities lined up to separate them from those inside the building, while horses and vans were deployed to split those outside into two. A sit-down protest ensued among those who were outside.
Riot police Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots. Riot police may be regular police who act in the role of riot police in particular situations or they may be separate units organize ...
arrived on the scene and authorities removed the rest of the protestors still inside the building, some of whom had "evidence of a beating on their faces" (''The Irish Times''). Riot police then forced those outside to move backwards, eventually charging at them followed by horses and dogs until they reached the
Shelbourne Hotel The Shelbourne Hotel is a historic hotel in Dublin, Ireland, situated in a landmark building on the north side of St Stephen's Green. Currently owned by Kennedy Wilson and operated by Marriott International, the hotel has 265 rooms in total an ...
. A second charge by the authorities forced those in the vicinity back to
Anglo Irish Bank Anglo Irish Bank was an Irish bank headquartered in Dublin from 1964 to 2011. It began to wind down after nationalisation in 2009. In July 2011 Anglo Irish merged with the Irish Nationwide Building Society, forming a new company named the Iri ...
. Many of those left outside the Department of Finance then joined a peaceful sit-down protest which was occurring outside Dáil Éireann. Free Education for Everyone then organised a march to
Pearse Street Pearse Street () (formerly Great Brunswick Street) is a major street in Dublin. It runs from College Street in the west to MacMahon Bridge in the east, and is one of the city's longest streets. It has several different types of residential and c ...
garda station, thought to be the destination of those who had been arrested. They collected there and demanded the release of anyone who had been arrested.


Complaints of police brutality

Two female protesters were reported to have been pulled out of the Department of Finance "by their ankles" and one by her hair. One bespectacled male student was trampled upon by a horse. A female was kicked and knocked to the ground by a horse. Another who said she was engaging in a peaceful protest was told by police to "get the fuck off the street" before being batoned. A male sitting peacefully on the ground with his hands out was reported to have been "rammed" by four garda horses. Blood and facial injuries were a common sight. After viewing video footage of the disorder MEP Joe Higgins said: "The use of Garda horses and dogs against student protesters in Dublin on Wednesday is an outrageous abuse of the right to protest. The intention was clearly to intimidate peaceful protesters and it is an utter scandal. They should never again be used against protesters". These events led to numerous complaints about police brutality being sent to the
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) is an independent statutory body in Ireland charged with overseeing the Garda Síochána, the national police force. It is a three-member body established under the Garda Síochána Act, 2005 to de ...
(GSOC). Within days the number of complaints had more than doubled. Video footage taken by witnesses was to be examined. On 10 November, hundreds of students marched through Dublin again, this time before the banner "END GARDA BRUTALITY". ''The Irish Times'' stated that "While members of the Socialist Worker Student Society and the
32 County Sovereignty Movement The 32 County Sovereignty Movement, often abbreviated to 32CSM or 32csm, is an Irish republican group that was founded by Bernadette Sands McKevitt. It does not contest elections but acts as a pressure group, with branches or ''cumainn'' org ...
were present at last night’s protest, they made up only a small proportion of the crowd". Among the protestors was Vanessa O'Sullivan, video footage of whom unconscious was broadcast on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
and RTÉ. She told the crowd: "This day last week I was knocked unconscious by a gárda... All I am guilty of is walking inside a public building and sitting down".


See also

*
Free education Free education is education funded through government spending or charitable organizations rather than tuition funding. Many models of free higher education have been proposed. Primary school and other comprehensive or compulsory education is fr ...
* March for a Better Way *
Right to education The right to education has been recognized as a human right in a number of international conventions, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which recognizes a right to free, compulsory primary education for ...
*
Universal access to education Universal access to education is the ability of all people to have equal opportunity in education, regardless of their social class, race, gender, sexuality, ethnic background or physical and mental disabilities. The term is used both in co ...
* 2010 UK student protests * 2011 United Kingdom protests


References


External links


''The Irish Times'' – "Student march: timeline of events"


*[http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/soon-everyone-will-be-too-frightened-to-make-a-public-protest-2407202.html ''Evening Herald'' – "Soon everyone will be too frightened to make a public protest"] {{DEFAULTSORT:2010 Student Protest In Dublin Post-2008 Irish economic downturn, Student protest 2010 in the Republic of Ireland, Student Protest in Dublin, 2010 2010 protests, Student protest in Dublin Brian Cowen, Students Education in the Republic of Ireland History of Dublin (city) Protest marches Student protests in the Republic of Ireland Student protest, 2010 Student protest in Dublin