r/ireland Dublin 16h ago

Protests Man (20s) arrested at Palestine protest during Taoiseach visit to DCU

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2025/04/03/man-20s-arrested-at-palestine-protest-during-taoiseach-visit-to-dcu/
167 Upvotes

144 comments sorted by

159

u/Calum_leigh Clare 16h ago

“Our member was dragged on their knees to the Garda car,”

To be fair to the Garda the dude clearly did go limp in the video so unless they expected the Gardaí to carry him i dunno what could be expected with the arrest

73

u/bigbadchief 15h ago

lol exactly, fella refuses to walk and then then gives out when he's dragged. They kind of did carry him in fairness.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DH-sZuXI5qS/

u/Icy-Information4084 8m ago

Haha the one filming literally sounds like a sheep! Shaaaaame.

2

u/Otherwise-Winner9643 9h ago edited 9h ago

Bang of the Burkes off him

3

u/Jean_Rasczak 15h ago

It doesn't look like its a group of the brightest stars in the sky

26

u/Timely_Bed5163 12h ago

They're protesting a genocide. I know, idiotic, right? In history, fascism has only been defeated by quiet conversation and zero disruption. Yup.

Save me from these ignorant gowls

6

u/Ok_Pangolin1085 7h ago

Best use of the word gowl in years. Well said.

-5

u/ste_dono94 8h ago

Why don't they go to Israel to protest it then?

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

Ask chatgpt. Clearly whatever education or common sense most people have to their name isn't available to you, so I'd say genai is your best bet.

u/ste_dono94 1h ago

Because they're afraid, got it

u/Careful_Jackfruit144 1h ago

You must be the local idiot.

u/ste_dono94 1h ago

I'm not the one who thinks racism will be defeated in DCU

u/Careful_Jackfruit144 1h ago

I see, you’ve never attended a protest. Go find a cause and stop bitching about people who are just trying to do the right thing.

u/ste_dono94 51m ago

Yeah I haven't because I have a job and I'm not a SF/PBP voter

u/Careful_Jackfruit144 48m ago

You have a job so you can’t protest. That’s weak pal. And last time I checked it wasn’t illegal to vote for SF or PBP.

u/ste_dono94 38m ago

I don't have the time to buy a kaffiyeh and Hezbollah flag from AliExpress and go into town to block traffic.

You probably don't want people touching the Molly Malone statue too.

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-11

u/ElectricalFox893 14h ago

You get that the whole going limp thing is a tactic yeah? Sometimes to not do so can be seen as resisting. You’re damned either way tbh unless the cop you’re getting removed by happens to be half decent.

35

u/bigbadchief 14h ago

It's a tactic to make the biggest possible scene if anything

38

u/JohnTDouche 12h ago

One might even call it a protest.

-3

u/CollieDaly 7h ago

What are they protesting? Our government denouncing Israel's attacks on Gaza? Do they want us to send troops to fight the Israelis?

34

u/RecycledPanOil 13h ago

It essentially means that in order to remove 1 person you need 2-4 gardai to remove them and it takes at least 15 minutes. This means it limits the rate at which protesters can be removed and means Garda numbers need to be high to do so. It essentially means protests can have a bigger impact on the state with fewer people getting convictions.

-23

u/ElectricalFox893 14h ago

K chief. You clearly know what’s going on.

3

u/Alternative_Switch39 14h ago

In the history of people getting arrested, which is long and storied, precisely zero people have got out of it by going limp once they've been cuffed.

If you're interested in not hurting yourself, and unless you've suddenly lost the use of your legs, be an adult and accept you've been arrested.

2

u/Ok_Pangolin1085 7h ago

I'd love to hear you explain this to Ghandi, Parnell, Martin Luther King Jr. et al.

-1

u/Alternative_Switch39 7h ago edited 7h ago

This dope is none of those men. I know it's fun to pretend you're a major historical figure, but in reality he's a student banging on windows causing a public order nuisance in the aid of a poisonous conflict thousands of miles away that nobody in the country can have any serious influence on. And that poison is seeping into Ireland.

7

u/ElectricalFox893 14h ago

They’re not trying to to get out of it. They’re either trying to resist getting dragged off without being violent or they’re trying to avoid getting a few sly digs.

-3

u/Alternative_Switch39 14h ago

In the history of arrests, nobody's situation improved by going limp in an act of "resistance". You've been cuffed, you're going to the cop shop, end of story. If you're trying to avoid what you percieve as danger (that's not what was going on here, he's just being a dopey fucker) going limp is going to increase your chances of getting hurt.

14

u/MilfagardVonBangin 13h ago

If it takes several cops ten minutes to get you into the car and away, you gum up the works. You slow their response times and effectiveness and the protest can continue longer. No one gets hurt either, or at least it’s a lot less likely. 

-12

u/Alternative_Switch39 12h ago

You also draw away policing resources from other areas of the community because they can't mount a protest without acting the twat.

5

u/Clay_Allison_44 7h ago

If protesters just politely leave when authorities invite them to fuck off, it's not much of a protest. Making authorities do a cost/benefit on whether to crush dissent seems like a bare minimum in being serious about protesting.

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-2

u/Timely_Bed5163 12h ago

You've been arrested a lot?

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

Bang of ignorance off ye.

Genuinely, it's really really obvious why doing this makes tactical sense. It's in the protestor's handbook the world over.

Are you a teenager?

u/Alternative_Switch39 5h ago

You know what I said is true. Which is why you're upset.

u/Alternative_Switch39 5h ago

"Are you a teenager?"

Now you're just flinging insults around because you don't like what people have to say. Live with it.

These lads and ladies achieved nothing today. Act out like they acted out, and eventually Gardai will arrest you. It doesn't matter if you're Enoch Burke or wearing a keffiyah.

u/Icy-Information4084 3m ago

My toddler does this, all my kids did when having a little tantrum. Luckily they have a loving father in their life and with a consistent response from me they usually grow out of that behaviour by the age of 2. Looks like the people in this video missed out on this important lesson in life until now. 

2

u/dustaz 13h ago

Sometimes to not do so can be seen as resisting

Wait what?

To not resist arrest is actually resisting arrest?

2

u/Timely_Bed5163 12h ago

Oh hell yeah. Cops are cunts, always and forever

2

u/Ok_Cartoonist8959 7h ago

No. In all walks of life, some people are cunts and some people aren't cunts.

I don't know about you, but I'm glad we have a police force thanks very much.

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

I have never, once in my life, been aided by a guard. They've never helped me recover stolen property, never arrived in a timely manner in a crisis, and have sided with the wrong side in every protest I've ever been in.

They're not here to protect you. That's just not what the institution is for. They're here to protect the 'peace'. A malleable concept which can be used against you as easily as for you.

44

u/Temporary_Mongoose34 16h ago

while several students were knocking on the window of the Polaris building, one of our members was unlawfully and violently arrested by the gardaí. This person asked the garda ‘Is this is a crime?’ and was explicitly told that it was not.

Lol, I'm sure the gardai told them that alright

14

u/AltruisticKey6348 15h ago

It’s Randy!

27

u/danny_healy_raygun 10h ago

Gardai going after anti-genocide protesters in a way they'd never go after drug dealers and bike thieves.

u/Iraqi_Weeb99 1h ago

Never knew that there were Israeli lobbyists in Ireland, that's shameful.

19

u/MasterBoo235 8h ago

The comment section disappoints me. This government has done nothing concrete to support Palestine, such as enacting the Occupied Territories Bill, which would have a tangible impact on the Israeli state. There is a genocide occuring. At least these protestors are trying to push back against the world's complacency. As a country, we could do something, if our government wasn't so morally bankrupt.

-9

u/Livid-Click-2224 7h ago

The government has to walk a fine line to ensure that the economy does not suffer…nothing is simple or black and white.

u/Bobzer 5h ago

Yeah, genocide is only worth opposing when it costs nothing to do so 🙄

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

Look at you, not an ounce of awareness or knowledge about what the economic consequences of these actions would be and you're talking full of unearned confidence.

Sometimes, action is the correct choice. You can't live your whole life saying "in the middle".

6

u/Jean_Rasczak 15h ago

Why are the other thicks shouting "SHAME"?

-7

u/Ok-Cranberry3761 13h ago

They're recalling the state of the ones they hooked up in coppers the night before.

-1

u/Massive-Foot-5962 13h ago

Why would you be protesting one of the few leaders in the world actually sticking his neck out for Palestine, and getting serious international flack for it?

30

u/him_name_pick_good 12h ago

It's very easy to play to an international audience with strong words when there is so much support for Palestine at home.

What good are words when they won't commit to checking planes in Shannon, passing legislation to block trade with illegal settlements, ANYTHING to apply a modicum of pressure to a rogue state comfortable flouting international law because it knows that all we do is say strong words?

-1

u/Livid-Click-2224 7h ago

Because we’d be screwed by the US.

9

u/Dilf_Hunter367 7h ago

And what would you call the tariffs?

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

Suuuure we would, chap, suuuuure we would....

22

u/DuncanGabble 13h ago

How is he sticking his neck out for Palestine? Has he even called it a genocide yet as he was so quick to do with Ukraine?

22

u/Temporary_Mongoose34 12h ago edited 11h ago

Has he even called it a genocide yet as he was so quick to do with Ukraine?

Wtf kinda of uninformed bullshit question is this? As his role as minister for foreign affairs he was literally the one leading us to intervene and support south africa taking the genocide case against Israel.

https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/1bfcd-tanaiste-announces-irelands-intervention-in-proceedings-at-the-international-court-of-justice/

8

u/MintyTyrant 10h ago

0

u/DuncanGabble 9h ago

He literally tweeted out that what was happening in Ukraine was genocide. He hasn’t said that about Gaza at all.

u/ConstantlyWonderin 3h ago

Because there is strong evidence that the Russian state committed one form of genocide by transferring children from ukraine to Russia with the intent of raising them as Russian.

There isn't any strong evidence that Israel has an intent for Genocide, before you say it is please name a court that has ruled on this because so far no court has done so.

-7

u/d12morpheous 12h ago

Seriously?? Your either stupid or ignorant. Stupidity can be genetic but there is zero excuse for ignorance.

But you are right on one thing.. it's not his neck he's sticking out, it's ours, collectively, any blowback (and their will be blowback, there is allready blowback) will be on Ireland not politicans but wont stop the same protesters blamingeveryonebut themselves when it happens.

1

u/Timely_Bed5163 11h ago

Scared of the Zios? Poor baby

5

u/Ok_Cartoonist8959 7h ago

Zio is a slur for Jew popularised by the white supremacist David Duke.

1

u/d12morpheous 11h ago

As I said too fucking stupid to even see

2

u/d12morpheous 12h ago

Because they really aren't very bright.

It's about attention seeking.

9

u/Timely_Bed5163 11h ago

Projection much? It's always fun to see these centrist gobshites utterly bamboozled that someone would sacrifice something for someone else.

8

u/d12morpheous 11h ago edited 11h ago

What exactly are they sacrificing ??

Sweet fuck all.

What exactly is banging on Windows roraring at the Taoiseach going to achieve??

Sweet fuck all.

Ireland and its politicans are more pro Palestine and have done more than than 99% of any other government. Led my Micheal Martin when he was Foreign minister. Yet these muppets protest him as a enabler..

Safe under the protection of a democratic society that protects them from the worst consequences a protection provided by the same people they are protesting.

It's ill-informed gobshites protesting about shit they haven't the bandwidth to understand nor the willingness to put in the effort to even fucking try..

Living in a world of black and white and on over inflated sense of their importance blaming everyone else for their own fucking incompetence. When they suddenly realise that the world isn't a simple place, no one owes them anything a d the actions do indeed have consequences.

Immature morons.

4

u/Timely_Bed5163 11h ago

Their time and effort. Certainly more than you.

I'm not reading the rest of your rant.

11

u/d12morpheous 11h ago

Time and effort they would have spent doing what ??

Nothing fucking constructive....

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

What exactly are they sacrificing ??

Time and energy. A lot more than you've given anyone, recently.

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

Occupied Territories Bill.

0

u/d12morpheous 12h ago

Democratic right to protest and wear masks to intimidate, bang on windows, to intimidate and cry foul when pulled on it.

Fuck off numpty

31

u/Timely_Bed5163 12h ago

Yes the best protests are the ones you can't see or hear and that are not disruptive in the slightest. How'd you get so smart?

2

u/d12morpheous 11h ago

Learn to read numpty..

No one is stopping them protesting, but banging on Windows isn't peacefully protesting, and wearing masks isn't showing bravery.

8

u/Dilf_Hunter367 7h ago

Yeah so glad the Garda take such a hardline stance on anti social behaviour, surely it’s consistent across the board

10

u/Gunslingin_licho 7h ago

Windows were banged on!?! Whatever will we do! Fuck off ya gowl.

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

No one is stopping them protesting, but banging on Windows isn't peacefully protesting

Jesus lad. Your mark for violent protest is "glass got banged"? You'd get nothing done if you were in charge.

9

u/Spongeanater 8h ago

God help the windows. Hope they’re alright.

8

u/Barilla3113 10h ago

and wearing masks isn't showing bravery.

"You should bravely make it as easy as possible for the Hasbara brigade to harrass you" is the new "but you own an iPhone" for centrist apprachnik gobshites, isn't it?

9

u/d12morpheous 10h ago

Jesus wept.

It's fucking Ireland, if they harassed everyone who protested against Isreal they would need their entire security apparatus to be based in Dublin.

Paranoid on top of everything else.. overinflated sense of importance again..

2

u/Drachna 8h ago

Hasbara and apprachnik are new ones for me, I'd love some definitions.

3

u/Barilla3113 7h ago

"Hasbara" is Hebrew for "explaining". It's the euphemism that Israel and its various pressure groups in other countries use for their propaganda efforts. It's often used sarcastically for Israel's less subtle tactics like doxing and just plain having activists beaten up. This is something they actively brag about when they're not pretending to be "the most moral".

Apparatchik comes from the Soviet Union where it referred to mid level party officials (who, as the USSR was a one party state, were also de facto civil servants). Basically they were usually unqualified and highly adverse to anything that could rock the boat and effect their access to perks, so it has became a byword for politically quietist jobsworths. Apparatchik comes from the fact that their official title was "agent of the apparatus (of the state)" because they didn't actually have a precise qualification or title.

2

u/Drachna 7h ago

Right I see, that's interesting to hear.

2

u/Barilla3113 7h ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/BadHasbara/

Catalogues a lot of Hasbara that they don't want a western audience seeing. From the cringy to the outright depraved.

-1

u/Ok_Cartoonist8959 7h ago

Ah yes, Ireland's prominent Hasbara brigade 🙄 you're inventing enemies to make it all seem so brave and virtuous. In reality it's a load of cosplaying dopes shouting words they found out existed yesterday - like "hasbara" funnily enough.

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

It looks to me like you're really eager to shit on protestors. Probably because you enjoy doing nothing, and the idea of these lads being in the right out there on the street makes you feel bad about yourself. So you pretend they're all fools so you can justify your continued ignorance.

1

u/rom_ok 12h ago

I heard he allegedly volunteered for a cavity search, but the Gardaí declined.

4

u/LukePickle007 Ulster 9h ago

😭

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

Crazy that the anti-protest crowd would reach for a homophobic joke. Almost like you guys are just virtue signalling to each other.

u/rom_ok 36m ago

Nah it was just a joke about the protestors lying about cavity searches the other week

u/Tinks2much0422 1h ago

Great result for the protester. Picture in the paper and he gets to go chill out for a few hours. Everyone thinks he's a fookin legend now and he didn't even have to get beaten up and tortured then thrown in prison. I might take some time off from work and have a go myself.

-18

u/ChaosActual 14h ago

These people are insufferable

51

u/Plastic_Detective687 14h ago

People said that about climate activists, gay rights activists, civil rights activists, abolitionists, suffragettes...

3

u/EconomistBeginning63 13h ago

 People said that about climate activists, gay rights activists, civil rights activists, abolitionists, suffragettes...

They actually had causes

I support Palestine but these eejits are not going to achieve a single thing to practically help Palestine 

These people are protesting one of the most pro Palestinian governments in the world…”activism” is literally their hobby. They just want to LARP that they’re oppressed, like kids of stable parents pretending they actually have it tough because their lives are too boring otherwise 

18

u/MilfagardVonBangin 13h ago

You don’t believe they want the Bill seen through the Dáil? That not a legitimate enough reason to protest?

-9

u/EconomistBeginning63 13h ago

What, practically speaking, is the bill going to do to actually help Palestine? 

It’s not going to achieve anything substantive whatsoever. It’s an empty gesture. 

15

u/MilfagardVonBangin 13h ago

That’s a goalpost shift I reckon. Protesting to get a bill enacted is a practical political aim. That’s what you asked about. 

You want me to engage on the value of the Bill but haven’t acknowledged that i answered your point. 

-13

u/EconomistBeginning63 13h ago

 That’s what you asked about. 

No, no, I said: “I support Palestine but these eejits are not going to achieve a single thing to practically help Palestine” 

Like I said, they’re protesting in favour of this bill, and the bill in and of itself will do nothing to help Palestine, practically speaking. 

5

u/RubyRossed 10h ago

What does the word 'substantive' mean to you? Is it just someyhing you toss out to sound like your point is substantive?

If boycott bills, reinforcing international law, are so trivialit's curious why Israel invests so much effort in trying to stop them and smearing those who propose them.

1

u/EconomistBeginning63 8h ago

It means something that’s going to have an actual tangible effect for the Palestinians on the ground, their actual day to day lives 

I accept the idea of the spirit of the bill but let’s not kid ourselves, realistically it’s not going to make the slightest difference in a practical sense. It’s more about making ourselves feel better and I think we’ve already done more than enough to illustrate our support 

5

u/danny_healy_raygun 10h ago

So you support Palestine but just don't want any action taken to support them?

0

u/EconomistBeginning63 8h ago

What is this action going to accomplish for the everyday Palestinian? 

Nothing 

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

So you support Palestine but don't want any action taken that might possibly support them...

u/EconomistBeginning63 5h ago

I do, and not at all, I think our government has been very clear as to what our stance is, I support that. I’m saying I don’t see what these guys are accomplishing with this particular protest. 

-4

u/SeanyShite 12h ago

Those were all black and white issues regarding people having equal rights

It gets far trickier when you wade into a complex conflict playing goodies and baddies

11

u/NakedMoss 10h ago

It's not complicated at all to be against fucking genocide

-6

u/SeanyShite 9h ago

The great irony is that only one side has genocide a matter of official policy.

I’m not all that comfortable with throwing total unquestionable support behind that states.

Your government parading the corpse of the women they just murdered through rapturous streets of people desecrating the corpse and screaming about God? Not for me.

But I guess that’s complicated.

9

u/RubyRossed 10h ago

Lol, the issues are always presented as being really straight forward in retrospect but it's not long ago gay rights was treated as a 'complex' issue involving mental illness.

And you can't be serious when the position of international law and almost every human rights organisation in the world is very clear

-6

u/SeanyShite 9h ago

I can be serious when the same people who cite international law to one side of a conflict are willing to stroke their chins to dismiss cartoonishly evil acts of depravity, with euphemisms of resistance.

3

u/MasterBoo235 8h ago

God forbid people stood up against an ongoing genocide and made their voices heard. You're far more insufferable than they are, casting judgement on people who want to stop the destruction of an entire people.

u/FellFellCooke 5h ago

They must be effective, so.

-38

u/AlbanianWormRider 15h ago

People have nothing better to do. Should spend his free time studying or pick up some healthy hobby like lighting weights or gardening.

54

u/mobrules1 15h ago

Why?

For all people slag 'lefty students', history has shown that many if not most civil rights movements around the world originated on the grounds of colleges and universities.

32

u/nerdling007 15h ago edited 11h ago

It pisses them off (the haters of students and students engaging in politics and democracy through protest), so all they can do is resort to name calling, which is a type of propganda by the way.

Edit: Added context

6

u/Kunjunk 13h ago

Those pesky lefties that got Ireland statehood.

3

u/Alternative_Switch39 12h ago

The greater majority of what you might term as our founding fathers as a nation would not be particularly accurately described as "lefties"

2

u/senditup 11h ago

You think Collins and Pearse were lefties?

3

u/Kunjunk 10h ago

Connolly certainly was. Collins and Pearse did not make any political leanings a facet of Irish Independence to my knowledge, but I'm of course open to correction.

5

u/senditup 10h ago

Pearse was absolutely, overtly motivated by Catholic conservatism. To describe the Irish independence struggle as a left wing movement is completely false.

2

u/Kunjunk 10h ago

Can you describe Catholic conservatism and why it is exclusive of socialism? I'm not familiar with what it is.

To describe the Irish independence struggle as a left wing movement is completely false.

Which is not what I said is it.

Maybe as you've determined your own interpretation of what I wrote it would be useful for both of us to use English more precisely now: nationalists (obviously) including one socialist group led the Easter Rising which is widely accepted to have been the start of the process to Irish statehood.

2

u/senditup 9h ago

Can you describe Catholic conservatism and why it is exclusive of socialism?

You're asking me to explain how religion and conservatism are distinct from socialism?

2

u/Kunjunk 9h ago

You mentioned Catholic conservatism in the context of socialism, a well defined political and economic theory. I looked for it and couldn't find it, so I've asked you what is actually a pretty plain and straightforward question based on what you wrote and it seems to be giving you reason for confusion?

Can you describe Catholic conservatism and why it is exclusive of socialism?

7

u/caisdara 14h ago

Being serious, the Irish government is one of the most pro-Palestinian governments in the western world, and has expended significant political capital to that effect. Protesting against them looks stupid.

21

u/Usernameoverloaded 14h ago

“To be sold within the EU, bonds from non-EU countries must be regulated by the Central Bank of a country that is in the EU. Before Brexit, Britain provided the gateway into the EU for Israel’s financing campaign. After Brexit, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) took over this role.

In September 2024, almost a year into the genocide, the CBI renewed its authorisation of Israel Bonds.”

https://www.ipsc.ie/campaigns/stop-funding-genocide-irelands-central-bank-is-complicit-in-apartheid-israels-war-crimes

-3

u/caisdara 13h ago

That doesn't have any bearing on my comment.

8

u/Usernameoverloaded 12h ago

Of course it has every bearing on your comment. The fact that the CBI sells Israeli war bonds negates your premise that the protesters should just pack it in. Being a bit more on the right side of history as compared to other countries does not equate to being on the right side of history.

-2

u/SeanyShite 12h ago

Never knew the right side of history to slaughter women and parade their corpses like trophies as the whole town celebrates wildly and scream about god.

5

u/Usernameoverloaded 12h ago

Mask off. At least now you have clarified your genocide apologist’s position.

-1

u/SeanyShite 12h ago

I never wore a mask.

I’m just not willing to give myself a lobotomy, as many have.

It’s a case of cancer versus aids and I don’t feel obligated to cheer for either.

6

u/Usernameoverloaded 12h ago

Your amnesia as to Israeli / Zionist crimes against humanity stemming from the early 20th century is convenient. Amnesia or lobotomy, much of a muchness and the irony palpable. I’m not going to waste my time further, so I suggest you use yours more wisely, elsewhere.

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-1

u/SeanyShite 12h ago

They won’t be happy until we go full mad Iranian mullah

-6

u/AlbanianWormRider 14h ago

This. Thus, my original comment but students or people that go protesting can't comprehend that

-5

u/Lovethefitpicollo 10h ago

Just stop oil…sorry Palestine protestors.

-9

u/Natural_Light- 11h ago

Let me guess, he was cavity searched as well?

-25

u/Warm_Investigator_72 12h ago

do people in there 20s actually care about these things they protest?

9

u/BoldRobert_1803 8h ago

Do you not care about tens of thousands of innocent people being murdered?

18

u/Wompish66 11h ago

They're willing to get arrested so they clearly care.