Hundreds march through Dublin to demand a better health service

by Andrew Sat Oct 11, 2008 20:48

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Dublin Shell to Sea banner

by ordinary worker Sat Oct 11, 2008 21:13

What a dismal turn out the last march was not even this badly attended. When will the left come up with something a little more immaginative than another 'march'. Bear in mind that there is a recession and the world banking system is in freefall and all the Irish left can think of is to have 'a march'. An alternative is badly needed but it wont come from labour, SF or the rest of the microscopic left parties

by Teresa - Save our Lady's Hospital Crumlin Campaign Sat Oct 11, 2008 22:52

I have to say there was alot more than just 1000 at the rally today the count from the gards was around 4000 yes alot less from the last march.

by lulu Sun Oct 12, 2008 18:13

A good turnout; marches & high-visibility actions are necessary to remind people of what's happening (or in the case of the lady in the wheelchair, not happening), & that they need to do something to stop the ruling asses from destroying what Health Service remains. Fair play to all who gave their time to support patients & health workers.

by Andrew Sun Oct 12, 2008 18:45

Short video of the Health March, and details of a wsm pamphlet on the Heath issue.

by Ian Sun Oct 12, 2008 21:48

There was something of a lack of publicity in advance of this march as I didn't even know it was on, and I live in Dublin!

by D_D Sun Oct 12, 2008 22:30

Andrew, excellent! You've done it again.

Simple but effective.

Glad you were around for it, and for to produce this, along with A.

by Aragon Sun Oct 12, 2008 23:27

It seems that very often when an action of this sort is organised, there will be people who criticse it for not being 'better organised' or whatever. Hey! People with limited means do the best they can to organise some sort of protest. Respect them for what they HAVE done. Don't bitch at them. Do something yourselves - and if you can make an even better job of it, these march organisers will be the first to celebrate your effort.

by Teresa - Save Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children Crumlin Mon Oct 13, 2008 15:52 t_shallow at hotmail dot com

You are right in what you say so many people are so willing to put down the hard work that many have put in to arrange and organise the protest on sat.
We can get the word out there trought flyers at shopping centres, walking the streets, outside schools Ext. but it is up to the people themself to come out to the march, If they do not want to well what can we do but try our best.
So many people sit at there tables adn moan and give out about the state of our health service, But do they come to the streets and march NO they do not and that really frustrates me so .
But again it goes back to the old saying you can bring a horse to the water but you can not force it to drink.
Well done to all my group our ladys for showing support for this campaign that will grow from strenth to strenth, that is if the people of this country believe that the power of the people can say and do alot. ,

by Andrew Mon Oct 13, 2008 18:06

On the size of the demonstration I didn't do a count but I'd say somewhere in the 1200 - 1800 range makes sense at the start - as with other demonstrations this may have grown as people joined en route. Anyone interested in a more exact count could probably get very close from the video posted above as this is simply a film of the entire march passing by so it should be pretty easy to count rows and multiply up.

I've attached the audio track from the video to this post as I'd a couple of requests from people who can't access google video in work.

Towards A cure - introduction
Towards A cure - introduction 5.51 Mb

by annoyed Tue Oct 14, 2008 15:33

there was a drunk sex pest at the march hassling women and bashing into people on purpose-even people with kids which is bad enough but nobody did anything about it- I think the general public in another public place would act (do something) like get the guards to remove the git and protect women from sex attacks in broad daylight instead of just allowing it to happen and handing out leaflets like cowardly sheep. if the left is that cowardly what hope in hell have we got of taking on the system?