A stunning 30k minimum at Cork protest march

national | education | feature

Sunday November 23, 2008 15:24

by Miriam

Some say more like 50K

Marchers Gather for Protest

The weather was good and the march got under way promptly at 12. Traffic into the city had been very heavy so it was obvious there was going to be a good turnout but nobody expected so many to come.

The front of the march caught up with its own tail back at the starting point after marching a mile or so around the city. It started at Grand Parade, proceeded down the South Mall and around by Parnell Place, back up Merchant's Quay then into Patrick Street - where it had to be halted for a while because it had to wait for the last marchers to begin their walk around - and eventually back around to the full length of the Grand Parade to where it began. Stewards and others present say there was easily 30-35K there and some were insisting that it was more like 50K. RTE is wittering about 'between 20-25K' while the poor old Evening Echo in Cork who had obviously taken a gamble with an early edition cheerfully claimed 'More than 5,000 marched in Cork today'.

Good atmosphere but pretty determined and serious too. The speeches said it all with the INTO making a pretty good job of theirs -John Carr in particular making a good fist of it.

The post-march discussion group I attended afterwards were all agreed that the INTO seems to have discovered a bit more courage of late having been the government's pet of unions for a number of years.

The next march is on the 6th in Dublin and it's hoped 100K will turn out. Some folk were talking about posting pictures on Indymedia so hopefully more feedback here soon.