d1carter

Are things calmed down after the riots?

JOHNOD

As a proud Catholic Irish American who will be traveling to Ireland this spring for the tenth year in a row let me say that I am ashamed of what went on in Dublin. I remember several years ago reading the reports of of Prods lining the streets in Belfast and tormenting and terrorizing young catholic school children on the way to school and thinking we are better than that. I may have been wrong. I don't know if this is a proper post for this forum but I felt somthing should be said. If you want an Irish prospective go to the Irish Independant web site and click on analysis.

CU

Things are back to normal in Dublin again. The trouble yesterday was a pack of organised thugs that were hell bent on causing trouble no matter what. The parade was called off but they still wanted to cause trouble. The less said about them the better. Let the courts deal with them and hopefully the police will continue to pick them up as they go through the video clips from all the security cameras on the street.
I hope it does not stop our visitors coming to visit us.

d1carter

Thanks CU:
My family and I love Ireland and I was worried when I read a snippet in my local paper. I don't think anyone should let the thugs from visiting such a wonderful country, I know we are planning our next visit now.
Don

SiobhanP

I was there and saw some of the things going on. a. this NEVER happens in Dublin b. there was a small group of ira type (whatever they call themselves these days) and the rest were bored thugs. There were not enough police out and they started to use bricks from condtruction on O'Connell st. A fe windows were broken and the Parade never happened as they decided it would not be possible. The majority of people were yourng thugs like ANY and EVERY city has. Foreigners as well as kids and a 52 year old man were arrested for causing damage and trying to loot. These are not republicans although they did start trouble as well. You will never see this on your travels and was a stupid unfortunate blip on our city. the police were underprepared which made things get out of hand. I saw somethings on O'Connell street but some of the pictures in the press seem like they have been manipulated and combined with other pictures. The irish press are rolling in the international attention which is not right either. Purely it was mostly Hooliganism as there was someone to protest against in their eyes. Also this march started in a very inner city area where you have a lot of bored kids looking for some kind of excitement and have little to do with their time.

There is no threat to you if you visit and there will not be a repeat of the parade or aftermath. Tourism is one of our main earners in Ireland and this should not affect your plans and if anyone has any specific questions just post and any of us here on the board from Ireland will answer. Happy travels.

S

lucielou

I agree with everything CU and Siobhan said, I was in the city centre at 1pm not far from O'Connell street and there was no sign of trouble, I think as Siobhan mentioned the media are only showing selective footage to make it look worse than it was. Most of the rioters and trouble makers would do what they did for any cause not just to stop Orange Marches, they only ended up hurting people from the Irish Republic and costing business in the area a fortune, they hurled rocks at our Irish police and ended up causing damage to the Republic how stupid is that? whats worse it wasnt only irish thugs that caused the trouble there were also other nationalities,so it goes to prove it was just a situation of "rent a mob/thug " Please dont let this put anyone off visiting Dublin, its a fine city with good people, dont let a few bad apples spoil the whole barrell.

Itallian_Chauffer

Glad to hear that you survived the incident unscathed, SiobhanP. Rest assured that this type of thing doesn't dissuade me from returning to Ireland, nor can I believe that any thoughtful person would allow one, unfortunate incident from turning them away.
While I certainly understand the high emotions on BOTH sides of this event, I have to think that the Republicans MUST be heartily EMBARRASSED by the events of the day. As you say, any meaningful protest has been totally negated by the thuggery and hooliganism that degenerated into looting and vandalism. Apparrantly, the Guarda weren't the only ones who UNDERESTIMATED their ability to control the situation...
Now, instead of stopping the march, those involved, through all the attention and bad press have virtually GUARRANTEED that the marchers will be back, again and again...
Stay safe,
Bob

GreenDragon

Y'all are mad (I live in the South, I can use that word!) to think that this would stop those of us who love your Island from traveling there!!!

I am more excited than ever, anticipating our June trip.

Siobhan, CU, any other locals, any chance of meeting up for a pint when we're in town? I'd love to chat!

We'll be in Ennis, Caherbarnagh, Kilkenny and Dublin from June 24 - July 8th... (3-4 days in each place)

Itallian_Chauffer

Also good to hear from you, LUCIELOU.
Don't know if this iformation is comforting, or not, but the first word I had of this tragic misadventure was here, on Fodor's. I also saw nothing on the YAHOO, JUNO, or YAHOO main pages. I actually had to search out the RTE web site to read about the events...
Speaking of which, I just lifted the following from the RTE site:

"Organisers to consider restaging march

27 February 2006 17:36
The organisers of the disrupted Love Ulster rally in Dublin are due to meet tonight to discuss whether they will attempt to restage the march.

Members of the Families Acting for Innocent Relatives group says they will discuss their options following the weekend violence in the capital. A spokesman for the group, Willie Frazer, told RTÉ News they did not want to see a repeat of the riots."

Would seem to me that chosing to ignore the original march would have been the wise thing to do. Nothing defuses a propaganda stunt like public disinterest....
Bob

Itallian_Chauffer

Ooops! Too many YAHOOs. I meant MSN.

FYI -- I live in a fairly liberal, college town (small city), in Florida. The news barely made a ripple here, and, as noted, the big name, web players didn't deem it worthy of 'HEADLINE' status.
Would be shocked, if tourism (from the States, at least) was to suffer unduly...
Bob

oldie

For goodness sake, "Prods" never lined the streets of Belfast to terrorize Catholic children.
You Americans never seem to realise how complicated NI is.
There was a regrettable and ugly dispute in North Belfast always a place for potential trouble because the two communities live so close together.
It was what a NI family member called a "but what about?" situation.
Protestants tried to stop catholic children passing through protestant territory and Catholics were supposed to have stopped protestant pensioners going to the shops.
If you are really interested, have a look at http://tinyurl.com/e85bq
It gives a background and explanation of the dispute.

Itallian_Chauffer

I understand BOTH sides of the arguement AND I am QUITE familiar with the history...
That being said, since when is doing something wrong and stupid justified by the fact that others have done something equally, or MORE idiotic???
I fault BOTH sides of this debacle ---
The Marchers for chosing to provoke, AND the March Protesters, for allowing themselves to be provoked.
When something like this happens (and Lord knows, it happens a LOT, in the US!!), there are NEVER any winners.
Except, MAYBE, the criminals and opportunists, that exist in EVERY country and society.

Bob

SiobhanP

There will not be another march as it is too much of a security issue and not really appropriate time wise yet.

Republicans are not embarassed as there are so many unrelated factions they just all do what they want and they only had a tiny part in causing the trouble the most trouble was by young/older hooligans.

There is a sort of an underclass that is becoming more apparent with the celtic tiger unfortunately and the cycle of poverty (Ok they are not starving but on govt assistance/welfare)keeps generating. Sex education is not great in most schools especially in poorer areas and most kids don't see much of a great future beyone what their parents had and this is where some of these people are coming from. Its not fair or right but that is how it seems to be going in society. 10 Years ago we were all broke but that was ok as most people were more on par with eachother but things have changed for some and these kids have very little in the way to entertain them as teens. I remember all the programmes in NY they useed to have for underpriveldged kids and they are few and far betweeen here.

OK so basically forget the political aspect its not an issue in Dublin whatever your beliefs and O'connell street is clear now and business as usual.

See you all on Paddy's day!