Dublin Councillor Objects to Loyalist Protest January 8, 2013
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
Press release
Independent Dublin City Councillor Cieran Perry has put a motion to today’s Central Area Committee meeting objecting to controversial loyalist leader Willie Frazer’s proposed protest in Dublin City Centre.
Cllr Perry said “Frazer and his sectarian bully boys should stay away from Dublin. The disgraceful scenes of loyalist thuggery currently on display in Belfast are not welcome in this, or any, city”
Frazer’s last public visit to Dublin, the infamous ‘Love Ulster’ march in February 2006, resulted in riots leaving at least 14 people injured. The Dublin Chamber of Commerce estimated that the violence cost over €10 million in damage and lost earnings for Dublin city traders.
Cllr Perry commented “It is clear from the violence provoked by Frazer’s Love Ulster march in 2006 that he doesn’t care how many people get injured during his publicity stunts. Frazer is a dangerous egoist”
Frazer has a controversial history having been turned down for a license to carry a personal protection firearm by the authorities due to his links with loyalist paramilitaries. A so-called ‘victims group’ set up by Frazer has also run into trouble with European Union grants revoked in 2011 because of “major failures” in the organisation’s spending. Families Acting For Innocent Relatives (Fair) received almost €2 million in grants from the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) and the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister. Both funders have now halted all grants and the SEUPB has demanded the return of more than £350,000.
Cllr Perry continued “City centre traders, their customers and the ordinary citizens of Dublin should not have to suffer intimidation and threats from Frazer and his cohorts. I expect unanimous support for my motion from all the Central Area councillors”
Full Motion:
This committee objects to Willie Frazer and his sectarian bully boys protesting in Dublin City Centre. The disgraceful scenes of loyalist thuggery currently on display in Belfast are not welcome in Dublin. City centre traders and their customers should not have to suffer similar intimidation.
For further information contact Cllr Cieran Perry cieranperry@gmail.com
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
The mystery all about this is what reason there could possibly be for Frazer and his gang to protest in Dublin. The decision to stop flying the Union Jack every day has no connection whatsoever with Dublin. It’s pretty obvious he’s hoping to provoke some kind of riot though I can’t see what good that will do the flag protesters politically.
I detect in Frazer the same kind of attitude which saw Unionist politicians gloat over the Dublin bombings, a notion that a bit of mayhem south of the border might cheer them up. It would make more sense if he brought his merry band to London which at least has a political connection to the North. The whole thing is like RSF protesting in Belfast against the treatment of their prisoners by the Dublin government. Wonder if they’d get a permit?
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I think Frazer just loves the limelight. He’s been all over the media and he laps it up.
Alan Shatter says the Garda have not been contacted by him.
I wonder how they’re paying for the buses, etc, if it does go ahead.
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Surely bringing the Fleg protests to Dublin contradicts the line followed by Unionists of Frazers ilk that the South is a completely foreign state.
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hi eamon i agree with you there a crowed of clowns . what has the union jack flag got to do with our beloved southern ireland eamon. f all the tricolour flag can fligh high every day off the year if your people want to do that .it would worrie me there looking for trouble . just look what happened in 2006 . i hope this goes by quietly and the dublin people ignore this crowed off looneys . let the whole world see who is the trouble makers i say eamon . gerry
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Mr Frazer is a bit sad, possibly a bit mad. His father was killed by the IRA. There may be a cause and effect thing there, I don’t know.
These “fleg” protests are so pitiful it’s pitiful. Unionists won a victory in that council vote – Sinn Féin wanted the Union Flag not to fly at all but in the end a council majority (including SF) voted for it to fly about 17 days a year, as it does apparently over most city council buildings in the UK. So unionists got equal treatment with the rest of the UK. And they proceeded to spin this into some kind of terrible defeat, encouraged people onto the streets and now can’t control these sad and dangerous lumpen elements who are rioting every night in east Belfast.
And Mr Frazer says his demo will sarcastically ask for the tricolour to be lowered at the Dáil on Saturday. But guess what, it won’t be flying on Saturday because it only flies there while the Dáil is in session. And surely the demo should be at the Dublin City Hall – except I’m fairly sure that the tricolour seldom flies there. And I’m sure the flying of flags at Dublin City Hall is governed by democratic decisions of Dublin City Council – just like Belfast City Council. Democratic votes.
So I respectfully suggest to Cllr Perry that we should all try to minimise the sadness here. The best way to do that is to ignore Mr Frazer and his supporters and let the Garda police their protest, if their is one. And let the people of Dublin stay happy. And not put forward motions which might give some succour to our own sad lumpen elements who didn’t take much provoking the last time out.
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Have to agree with Joe. I can’t imagine that a great many loyalists could even be bothered coming all the way down to Dublin to march about some streets filled with bemused shoppers. Frazer reminds me of the Westboro Baptists, a crank just looking for attention and reaction, and unfortunately some Dubliners completely fell for his bait last time around, much to his satisfaction. I’ve been on my fair share of marches that were viewed with complete indifference by the general public, and I’d hope that most of the causes were a good deal more important than the colour of the flannel hanging off the top of a building. If people could get a bit of perspective and treat these folks with the appropriate amount of ridicule they deserve, they might even get bored and just do a bit of souvenir shopping instead.
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I genuinely hope everyone adopts the same sane attitude as you two. Particularly as he is travelling south, I suspect, with the hope of provoking similar scenes to the last time.
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Gerry Adams agrees with us!
From today’s Irish Times.com:
“If Willie Frazer and indeed anyone else wants to come and protest in any part of this State we should ignore it,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
“No one should raise a voice, or throw a stone, or counter protest,” he said, adding that by considering coming to Dublin Unionists acknowledge “that this is a small island and that Dublin is part of the future”.
Ah, me and Gerry, we agree on so much these days.
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http://vimeo.com/5594686 This has been circulated quite a bit over the last week on Facebook and I thought it might be of interest to some here. An insta-documentary on the last visit of Love Ulster to Dublin. Voiceover is adapted from a text by Chekov Feeney.
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A Republican Sinn Fein leaflet against the same 2006 parade
http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/from-2006-a-republican-sinn-fein-leaflet-against-the-love-ulster-parade/
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Good video and a lot more clued-in than most of what was written about that riot. Interesting though, when after four years of austerity there were people complaining that the Irish don’t riot…wave a Union Jack in Dublin and you’ll get a riot alright. Also it’s not the ‘Brits’ per se that annoy people, but especially Loyalists.
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It’s very interesting. Thanks to Eamonn for putting it up. Some of it must have required a brave cameraman. I’d kind of forgotten how serious it was.
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You’re welcome EC. IMC Kev was the camera guys handle – don’t know his full name. He landed in the situation by accident but stuck with it. I’m very cowardly personally about flying bricks etc.
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wave a Union Jack in Dublin and you’ll get a riot alright.
Yeah, people who wouldn’t march for anything else have commented to me that they’ll be out on Saturday to stop this. Equally, of course, the people out every night in Belfast recently probably wouldn’t be out marching against Tory austerity or anything useful.
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I would hope the Loyalist buses and protestors would be thoroughly searched by PSNI and Gardai on both sides of the border, this should take a few hours. Even better this protest simply should be banned as it is provocative and could result in a similar outcome to 2006, it is certainly not in the interests of Dublin citizens for that to happen. There is probably also a case for the likes of Frazer to be arrested for inciting hatred.
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The best reaction to a provocative demonstration is simply not to be provoked. And the risk of calling for something you don’t like to be banned, on the basis that it’s ‘provocative’, is that something you do support, in the future, will also be banned, on the same basis. Freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly, apply to fucking idiots like Frazer as much as they to do the rest of us.
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I’m largely inclined to agree. Invoking the Chamber of Commerce sets a dodgy precedent for one thing. There was some bod on the News complaining that there are too many demonstrations on in O’Connell Street which affect trade full stop and wondering why they couldn’t parade in the Phoenix Park instead.
Yet this is an odd march because it’s very hard to think of any other march in Dublin, even the most contentious, being held, IMO, expressly because its organisers hope it will provoke a riot.
Is there not a parallel with inflammatory marches through areas with a large immigrant population by the NF, BNP and their heirs? I know it’s not exactly the same and I’m not comparing Frazer’s mob with Neo Nazis, but there is a similarity of motive.
The best reaction to a provocative demonstration probably is not to be provoked. But sadly it’s not the most common reaction to a provocative demonstration. I hope people have the good sense to ignore Frazer and his gang but it will be interesting to see their reaction if this happens.
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traders on o connell st are idiots. if they had any sense they would distribute vouchers that them promote themselves ‘prove you where at the march get 20% of a coffee’ ‘government steeling the shirt of your back, buy a new one, discount for marchers’ etc but no all they do is moan.
on the loyalist thing. the fleg protesters in Belfast are assembling in East Belfast on Saturday around mid day. if willie gets attacked in Dublin wouldn’t be surprised if short strand got attacked in response.
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That’s one thing that’s surprised me over the last while: with so much of the flag-related violence concentrated in east Belfast, the protestors seem to have relinquished their traditional marching route which’d normally bring them straight to St. Matthew’s.
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Here’s an idea how about re routing it. Loyal Orders getting used to a bit of that. But where?
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From Portadown to Banbridge?
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Yeah, although what’s not clear (if the damn thing even happens) is whether there’s a march involved at all, or if it’s just a demo, assembling outside the Dail.
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Against All Flags
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There’s an interesting contrast between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael on this one. FF’s Justice spokesperson Niall Collins has asked Frazer to call off the march and pointed out that the Tricolour won’t be flying outside an empty Leinster House anyway. Alan Shatter, on the other hand, has focused entirely on the Gardai’s duty to protect the marchers and restricted his concern to possible attacks on them by other elements.
Would it be unfair to say that there’s an element in Fine Gael who wouldn’t mind some kind of small scale manageable trouble which they could then portray as ‘the true sinister face of republicanism,’ while engaging in their traditional rhetoric about FG as a bulwark against subversion?
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Or it could also be a product of the very different responsibilities of government and opposition. Shatter has to speak on behalf of the office he holds, on behalf of the state. Collins can say whatever he likes on behalf of the FF party. Not for a moment to take away from your point about FG’s natural inclination though.
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You may well be right LATC though I don’t think Shatter would speak any differently were he out of office. Not sure about Collins.
In more cheerful Loyalist related news, there’s quite a nice article in the Belfast Telegraph about Shirley McMichael, widow of John and mother of Gary, and her embrace of Wicca.
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Breaking news … We’ve been informed that the Loyalist protest, planned for this Saturday, has been postponed.. more details to follow
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No surprise. Typical Willie Frazer.
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Frazer is an attention-seeker. He will try and pull this stunt again, luckily for people in Dublin they are not in the firing line for the Willie Frazers who are rioting almost nightly over the butchers apron.
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Aside from the rioting there is a pogrom going on. It mainly affects the Alliance Party. Not many taigs they can get but they do try. Because the Alliance are not lefties they can be forgotten. Low level fascism.
Did anyone read the SPs take. It is a bourgeois plot to divide the workers. This plot was hatched when the Belfast shopkeepers were missing.
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