25,000 Protest Against Fees Increase
By Sean Flynn, Education Editor
Irish Times, November 4, 2010
In the largest student protest for a generation, at least 25,000 voiced their opposition to increased student fees outside the Dáil yesterday.
As he surveyed the vast crowd on Merrion Street, the president of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) Gary Redmond declared: “The sleeping giant that is the student movement has been awoken.”
For too long, he said, students had been a sitting target for the Government, but the movement had been reinvigorated and they would no longer roll over.
Pointing their fingers accusingly towards Leinster House, the students chanted “I am a Vote, I am a Vote” for several minutes. It was a powerful moment during a protest which seemed at times like a throwback to student resistance in the 1960s.
The scale of the protest, organised hurriedly after weekend reports of a threatened _3,000 student charge, appeared to take even the USI by surprise. It estimated that over 40,000 attended the event. Protesters wore yellow T-shirts bearing the slogan Education Not Emigration.
A feature of the protest was the large number of students from the Letterkenny, Tralee, Limerick and Galway/Mayo institutes of technology.
Virtually every third-level college in the State - university and institute of technology – appeared to be represented. In all, over 200 buses ferried students from campuses all over the Republic. The protest took over 90 minutes to make the short journey from Parnell Square to Merrion Street.
In his address, Mr Redmond exhorted students to return to their lecture halls and their college libraries with a new determination to face down education cuts.
Despite the clashes which would later mar the event, the main protest was notable for its good humour and bonhomie.
Needing little cajoling from the main speakers, the crowd delivered its own rendition of Oh Mary, Why Don’t You Have Some Sense? – in this case the song was directed at Minister for Education Mary Coughlan.
Behind the good humour, the placards also reflected real concern about a grim future of unemployment or emigration. One said “Pay My Fees or Pay My Dole”; another read, “BA Hons not BA to London”.
In his address, Mr Redmond said the huge attendance reflected the fear among students about further increases in college fees.
“Thousands of students are already struggling to fund their college education, and any increases in fees will force many of these students to drop out of their courses. It will also prevent thousands of potential students from entering third-level education in the future,” he said.
Students, Mr Redmond added, are “the key to Ireland’s future prosperity”. We have, he said, sent a “clear message that we will not stand idly by while being targeted in the budget”.
The USI later blamed “left-wing” groups for the ”destructive and anti-social violence” which it said would only divert attention from its campaign against increased student fees. Mr Redmond said: “This anti- social behaviour was completely separate from USI’s protest.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1104/1224282635055.html
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Police Attack Mass Student Protests
Morning Star (UK), November 4, 2010
Around 25,000 students took to the streets of Dublin on Wednesday in protest at plans to increase college registration fees.
And in the Dail today Taoiseach Brian Cowen refused to be drawn on the possible doubling of fees in next month’s budget.
While the protest by the Union of Students in Ireland was generally peaceful, many were confronted by riot police on foot and horseback afterwards.
Trouble flared up when police charged about 2,000 people gathered near the Department of Finance after the main march on Leinster House.
Police claimed that students threw bricks, placards and eggs at the Department.
About 20 stormed into the lobby before being wrestled back out.
Hundreds more staged a sit-down protest in the road.
Police admitted that several protesters had been injured and three had been arrested.
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) distanced itself from those who had occupied the building.
“USI is saddened by the actions of a small minority of people who staged a sit-in protest at the Department of Finance shortly after the USI protest march today.
“This anti-social behaviour was completely separate from the USI demo,” it said in a statement.
Many protesters wore T-shirts calling for “Education, not emigration,” referring to a recent surge of young people leaving Ireland with its double-digit unemployment for opportunities abroad, from Canada to Australia.
The Communist Party of Ireland condemned “the use of mounted police and the riot squad to attack the militant but peaceful mobilisation of thousands of students.”
A spokesperson added: “It is clear that this government, the European Union and international bankers will brook no protests or resistance against the austerity measures that they are imposing upon the Irish people.
“This violence from the state must be met with renewed mobilisations of all working people whose living standards are under attack in the state’s attempt to save the ultra-rich from the consequences of their actions.
“It is incumbent on the Irish Confederation of Trade Unions to make sure their demonstration on November 27 matches the same determination and mobilisation that Irish students have shown.”
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/97261
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