Not So Quiet Riot

Dublin had a riot this weekend. Shame, since we'd hosted the Welsh for the 6 Nations Rugby tournament. Bad manners for the host to get in a squabble in front of the guests. Luckily, I was home feeling a tad bit under the weather after spending Friday night with former co-workers who were proud of the fact I've finally learned to drink pints of Guinness instead of wimpy tourist Glasses of Guinness. Whatever... I was safe Mom, don't worry.

I was reading about the riot last night in the paper and the gist of it seems to be this: There was a Love Ulster parade planned, which is an Orangeman March. They applied to the city a year ago for permission to parade down O'Connell Street (itself a hotbed of risky political behaviour) to Lienster house, where they intended to talk peace with the local government authorities. Now the important part of that sentence is the phrase 'a year ago'. For those of you not familiar with what this all means, let me send you here to catch up as well as here. So they organized a parade, applied for permission, were granted permission and had the affrontery to show up for the approved parade. Although Dublin is a mostly Catholic Republians, it's a fairly liberal city and the troubles that plauge Belfast and the counties to the north don't seem to creep down this far south. Then again, we don't have hate-mongering parades. So the fact that they had one in the first place took me by suprise. The fact that they chose to march down O'Connell Street didn't. What took eveyone by suprise is the fact that Dublin police knew the march was happening for a year and failed to see that anything violent would occur. Hell, I could have told them that! Add to the mix that O'Connell is currently undergoing renovation to make it more pedestrian friendly and piazza-like (ah the irony) and that the construction crews didn't bother to lock any of their materials away for the weekend and you've got a potentially violent cocktail happening. The march was thwarted but the text messages went out calling the protesters anyway.

Now these people had over a year to act. They had a year to petition the government to recind permission. They had a year to reason with the Love Ulster people. They had a year to be out of town when it happened. Instead, they planned a protest. As is there right. However. They didn't show up with placcards and banners. They didn't apply for permission. They didn't bring a bullhorn and organize everyone before the parade. No. Instead they showed up in many small unassuming groups with ski masks and bandanas hidden. They slowly made their way to O'Connell Street, which is a major shopping district and waited until parade time (noon-thirty) to start booing and throwing things. That is far from peaceful intention. It escalated, as riots tend to do and suddenly it was a violent protest. According to the article I read, a spokesman for one of the many splinter IRA groups (Real IRA, Conditional IRA, etc...) blamed the marchers themselves for the violence. Essentially, the protesters were left with no choice but to throw things, start fires, and loot stores in opposition to the march. No peaceful way to make their discontent heard. I don't really understand that logic. Then again I don't really see what violence of any kind accomplishes in political arenas. Now the Sinn Fein Party, with Gerry Adams and company, had called for absolute non-action, ordered their people to be free of the area and have iron clad alibis in order to prove their peace intentions as they declared earlier this year. I have no idea if his followers heeded his direction. I can only say that, as the leader of his party trying to make peace, he did the right thing in forbidding anyone in the Sinn Fein party to protest at the march. However, there are many, many IRA parties in Ireland. And it's the splinter groups that seem to cause the troubles.

And really, if blame needs to be assigned, I blame the police. They knew about the march. They know the history of these marches in the North. Yet they took no action, simply assuming it would be fine. Forget public saftey, let's go watch the Wales v. Ireland match. I'm sure everyone will play fairly on the streets.

The whole thing is just crazy if you ask me. I feel sorry for the people that were shopping and the shop keepers themselves. They locked people in their storerooms and basements until it was safe to come out. I sincerely doubt anyone asked for loyalty oaths before admitting people safety.