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Students victimised for protesting against Shell and government ministers
 dublin |
rights, freedoms and repression |
press release
 Monday November 26, 2007 18:03 by SP Member
Defend the right to protest!
Paul Murphy, Socialist Party (CWI in Ireland), Dublin
A member of the Socialist Party, Darren Cogavin, and one other student, Enda Duffy, are due to meet the Vice President for Students at University College Dublin (UCD), Dr. Martin Butler, in the next week. They face punishment for engaging in a peaceful protest against the giant corporation Shell and the Green Party Minister for Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan. Two protests, organised by the campaign ‘Shell to Sea’, took place on 30 October in UCD, the biggest college in Dublin. They were opposing the giveaway of over 50 billion euro worth of gas for free by the Irish government to Shell, and the building of an unsafe onshore pipeline and refinery by Shell in Rossport, Co. Mayo, on Ireland’s west coast.
The first protest was outside a Shell recruitment fair, highlighting the role of Shell in Mayo and internationally. The second took place outside a lecture theatre where Eamon Ryan was due to speak at a debate. He was confronted by about 50 chanting protestors and he turned on his heels and left.
In the aftermath, the college authorities and some right-wing students tried to paint these as ‘violent protests’, which they were not. Three students have received letters from the college authorities, claiming that the protestors harassed students, intimidated staff and put the safety of others at risk.
One of the students has already met with the authorities and been given a fine of up to 100 euro. The Socialist Party says no student should face any disciplinary action, or have to pay any fine, for engaging in a peaceful protest.
The authorities’ action is clearly an attempt to criminalise protest on campus. Recently, general activity by students in the college has been at a relatively low level, and now the authorities are now attempting to set a precedent of punishing students for protest.
The college authorities can be made to step back, through pressure in the college (the Students' Union President has supported the students) and from outside, with a campaign of emails and phone call protests.
Please send protest emails to
Dr. Martin Butler: martin.butler@ucd.ie.
The protest emails should be also sent to
the UCD President president@ucd.ie
and copied to:
paul@socialistparty.net
Phone calls will have a big impact
Please let the UCD authorities know about your protest by phoning Martin Butler on 00 35 1 7161280.
UCD President, Hugh Brady, can be phoned on 00 35 1 716 1618.
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Comments (11 of 11)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11Any news on these cases?
Try get some balance. As someone who was actually there I can attest to the the intimidating, approacthing on violent, attitude of SOME of those shell to sea protestors who actually prevented the minister addressing the debate. I absolutely support a right to peaceful protest but what occured was the exact opposite. They would not allow him to speak and shouted abuse at both the minister and those who attempted to ask them to stand aside and let him in.
What happened is the exact reason why people are not supporting the campaign in the numbers it otherwise might attract.
100 euro fine thats a cheap education!
These students should have got a bigger rap on the nuckles. Shame the president is so soft.
So the opposite of peaceful is "intimidating" and approaching violent but not actually violent? Just to get that clear now, cause I wouldn't want to be "intimidating" the pampered wilting wallflowers in the various "debating" societies of UCD. Doesn't seem to take much to intimidate them, some bad language and an accent seems to be enough. *rolleyes*
No-one was prevented from speaking. The protest was outside one of the many doors to the lecture hall, and Ryan decided not to use any of the others. Eamon Ryan, as part of this new government, seems happy to stand over what his party colleague Trevor Sargent described as: "a disgrace, for people to be manhandled and beaten in the way that the community has been in that area". What's happening in Mayo is naked intimidation, and it's happening every day. To use the same word to describe the protest in UCD is laughable.
indeed i hoped he would throw the book at them but alas its only a 100 euro fine
When did Barry say he was supporting the Students ?
The right to free speech should be paramount. It is useless to speculate about an event that you didn't attend. Everyone knows how accounts of events can be misinterpreted and spun to suit certain individuals needs. This sort of behaviour goes on in main stream journalism everyday. I would agree with the students that debates are valid and everyone should be given a fair hearing regarding whether or not we agree with their point of view, this afterall is what democracy is all about.
"Green Party member" comes on here and says that he supports free speech but does not say a whole lot more than that. This time last year he'd probably be here defending these students to the hilt. Now in Government with FF he's defending Cancer Cut-backs, Corrupt payments to Bertie, Pay hikes for minsiters, M3 motorway through Tara, Incinerators in Dublin City, Hospital closures, pay "restraint", Aer Lingus job cuts, etc., etc.
The close to a hundred emails and phone calls received by the UCD authorities from around the world protesting against their attack on the right to protest has forced them to back down. Darren Cogavin and Enda Duffy, both of whom were facing possible fines for engaging in peaceful protest against Shell and Green Party Minister, Eamon Ryan, have met with Martin Butler, the Vice President for Students.
At both meetings, he was very defensive, having been stung by the unexpected international solidarity. Apparently, he was completely shocked about getting so many emails from students and staff in UCD, activists around the country, and from people around the world. He was particularly perplexed about getting emails from Greek trade unionists and American students!
As a result, all the indications are that Darren and Enda will face no punishment. This will be finally confirmed by a letter they are due to receive this week. From Butler’s response however, we are very confident that they have been forced to back down.
International solidarity has forced the college authorities to back down, and defended the right to protest on campus. A big thank you from Darren and Enda to all those who emailed and phoned in!
Delighted to read this post - shows what solidarity can do!
In the course of my call I asked whether any Department/Faculty in UCD had been, is or intends to be in receipt of funding from Royal Dutch Shell, Shell E&P Ireland, Shell Ireland or anything with the word $hell in it.
Am still waiting for info ...
Again, well done to all - more of this is what's needed and more of this is guaranteed while $hell and their friends continue to think they can play footsie in north Mayo.
Incinerators and other controversial topics are being dealt with by the Green Party. You automaticaly persume you know the mind set of the Green Party members, not a very logical or intelligent route to take as the membership consists of very liberal minded people with a similar goal and very different approaches to tackling current issues.