On the 8th of March of this year, the Occupy Dame Street site was dismantled by gardai in the early hours of 3am. This operation was carefully planned by senior gardai members and was carried out with vast numbers of the Gardai Siochana. Protesters were taken from the site right outside the Central Bank, involuntarily by the gardai and were kept away from the site. Only one member of the protesters was arrested that night.
The entire camp was dismantled within 2 hours. Once the camp was taken down, council workers came in and cleaned the area.
The gardai had gone to the protesters beforehand to ask that they move from the area for St Patrick’s Day as the parade would be going down Dame Street. They refused and it was at this time the planning for the dismantling of the camp came about.
Later that day, the protesters marched from Dame Street to Pearse Street Gardai Station claiming that their rights had been violated. They were a peaceful protest and they were forcibly removed from their site.
When they reached the station, they were greeted by a group of gardai that were not permitting them access to the station. This march soon turned ugly and protesters were injured. One of the protesters was taken away by ambulance and others sustained minor injuries. The protesters were demanding that their belongings be returned to them. They had personal belongings such as laptops and phones etc confiscated from them during the dismantlement. Later in the evening, three of the Occupy Dame Street protesters went into the station to demand they have their belongings back, however there has been no agreement as to whether they will receive them back yet.
Gardai remained outside the Central Bank around the clock until St Patrick’s Day to ensure that the protesters did not put up another camp. One of the protesters says they will be putting up another camp in the future.
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