Meeting, Wed. 27th Defend Free Speech, Public Assembly and Activity in Galway

galway | miscellaneous | news report

Saturday August 23, 2003 21:55

by Orla Ni Chomhrai

nichomhrai at eircom dot net

Public Meeting on the right to Free Speech, Public Assembly and Activity. Menlo Park Hotel, Galway, Wednesday, 27th August, 8pm.

There is a public meeting to be held next Wednesday at 8pm in the Menlo Park Hotel, Galway on the proposed ban on leaflets and restrictions on public assembly and activity. The line up of speakers include:Catherine Connolly, Labour Party, The Tuam Mayor, a human rights lecturer from NUI, Galway, Des Bonass, of the Dublin Trades Council (who will speak about how a similar proposal was defeated in Dublin), and a campaign speaker.

To give people an idea what this is about I have copied a letter which was sent in to the Galway Advertiser on the subject

New bye-laws an attack on democracy
Dear Editor,

I wish to highlight two proposed bye-law changes which will have a major bearing on Cultural Life and Democracy in Galway city and its environs. An environmental bye-law proposes to ban the distribution of all leaflets including those of community groups and Non-Government Organisations. The parks bye-laws would require permission for groups of 100 people or more to seek written permission to hold a public meeting, protest, or religious event. Buskers would require written permission from the council to be allowed to perform and the locations may also be restricted by law. Roller blading and skateboarding will have designated areas, as will flying a kite, swimming, fishing, flying model aeroplanes, and sailing vessels. The definition of Designated Recreational Open Spaces which applies means all recreational land and water, including buildings, promenades, beaches, woodlands, parks, and public open spaces either controlled or in charge of Galway city council.

No reason that I’m aware of has been given requiring written permission by a group greater than 100, indeed some of the councillors who I spoke with did not seem to know why this particular idea is on the agenda. This proposal was voted on in Dublin in the recent past and rejected by all parties. What if someone in City Hall doesn’t like an individual or group? What if sympathetic official is replaced by an unsympathetic one? What if a protest needs to be organised quickly and sporadically in response to an event of local, national, or global importance? Who is going to enforce it and how? Would it not make more sense to allow groups to congregate and make speeches in safety off the main roads and thoroughfares, rather than causing disruption?

Denying people the right to protest and leaflet has a serious impact on democracy. The community development group in City Hall, of which I am a participant, has a voter participation strategy (a first for a local authority). Our strategy is under direct threat. The proposals will serve to keep people ignorant of issues and apathetic about politics. The perception of some that 'everything is a done deal, we have no influence' could be extended to 'we can't even open our mouths now or produce a leaflet to inform the people on the street'.

I sincerely hope that when these issues are being voted on in September common sense will prevail; that the politicians will realise that some proposals are bad for politics and democracy and (without complete clarification) other proposals are bad for cultural life and tourism. If we resort to draconian measures and banning everything, we’re then headed towards a Big Brother type state (or city) where free speech is prohibited, and leisure activities deemed ‘undesirable’ are ruled out. We could end up banning many leisure activities without first having the required facilities in place. Some consequences could be that teenagers resort to more bushing and drugs because they can’t skate or fly a kite on an empty beach of a winter’s day; foreign tourists happily rollerblading down the prom are told ‘you have to stop, we don’t allow that here’; Buskers tell their performing community ‘Galway is out, they want written permission and there’s only few places allowed now’. I’m not suggesting a free for all. Appropriate bye-laws can be effective. However, my point is there is a balance to be found and we must really strive to find that balance.

Yours,

Kieran Cunnane,

Renmore.

http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie/dws/story.tpl?inc=2003/08/07/letters/36118.html

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Comments (13 of 13)

well written. = bravo!

by reader

Sat Aug 23, 2003 23:03

bula bus.

I hope..

by David

Sat Aug 23, 2003 23:45

That this call to free speech will not attract the nazis, revisionists and racists out from under their rocks to attempt to point out percieved hypocracies in your legitimate demands..

Bring them out...

by Anti-racist

Sun Aug 24, 2003 01:51

Of course it will bring them out from under their rocks, so we had better get much heavier rocks and drop them from a height.

up galway.

by angry liberal - labour

Sun Aug 24, 2003 16:10

well done and watch out for a pre 7 o'clock bedtime curfew.

Good luck Galway!

by Fintan Lane - Cork Anti-War Campaign

Sun Aug 24, 2003 21:08

corkantiwar at hotmail dot com

Best of luck with your protest! What's being proposed is an absolute outrage.

I agree

by Seáinín

Sun Aug 24, 2003 22:15

These proposals are bad for democracy so good luck to anyone who opposes it.

I just hope the f***ing Socialist Worker Party turn up with a 100ft banner and ruin it for everyone, giving everyone the impression that only the lunatic Marxist fringe is involved.

Irony is dead

by Joe

Sun Aug 24, 2003 23:47

Ha ha ha! Oh God, irony is definitely dead when Brian Wallace (aka 'reo'), the sad lonely Cork nazi, starts describing us as mentally ill. Ha ha ha! Get help Wallace.

Thanks Fintan

Mon Aug 25, 2003 01:08

Hi Fintan, Thanks. I saw in the Sunday Tribune today that there are plans to restrict skateboarding in Cork. Not really on the same scale as what is happening in Galway, but still a bit worrying.

I was talking to someone and she told me that there is to be a big summit (EU Summit?) in Ireland at the beginning of the new year. It starts in Galway, and the proposed restrictions on protests might be partly be influenced by this. Hopefully we will organise well against the laws and they will never happen. I was on the outskirts of Galway city today and I was delighted to see the place was plastered with posters about the meeting.

To go slightly off-topic, I heard that the Guards took money the Cork Anti-War Campaign collected on a protest. Did you ever find out what they did with the cash?
Orla

Hi Orla

by Fintan Lane - CAWC

Mon Aug 25, 2003 03:27

Yes, the attempt to ban skateboarding is a disgrace, particularly as the Council has made no serious effort to accommodate the kids elsewhere. Personally, I can't see any merit in the anti-skateboarding argument because the area used by the kids (outside the Opera House) is good for little else. Seems to be a case of the anti-fun brigade worrying about something that developed organically without their 'permission'. There has been something of a reaction against the killjoys; indeed, there was a very good letter on the subject in the Examiner from Mick Hannigan and he's made his Kino cinema available for a meeting, so all is not lost yet.

The money taken by the Garda on the 22 March anti-war demonstration amounted to E1,054. They prosecuted a number of the collectors, but at the court case recently, the judge dismissed the charges (no fines, no convictions) declaring that they had met the case 'fairly' etc. More importantly, he agreed to our proposal that the money be sent to UNICEF Ireland to be spent on relief in Iraq. This brings the total donated by CAWC to UNICEF over the past few months to more than E3,500. Needless to say, we were quite satisfied with the outcome, but still rather miffed that the gardai seized the money in the first place. Imagine the scene: you attend an anti-war march two days after the war begins, angry and frustrated, and in an effort to articulate your sense of outrage, you throw E10 into a bucket for the anti-war movement. Half-an-hour later you hear that your money is winging its way to the Garda Benevolent Fund! The odd thing is that the Garda were aware of the collection from the beginning and, if so minded, could have stopped it then. Instead, they waited until the buckets were full and until the march had passed, and then they moved in. Go figure. Anyway, the money has been put to good use.

Best of luck in Galway! In the lead-up to Cork's City of Culture thingy in 2005, one local Cork politician (a PD alderman) is busy trying to narrow the public sphere here by insisting on a crackdown on fly-postering. I think we'll see more of this throughout the country and people do need to be vigilant.

Child abuse

by caspian

Mon Aug 25, 2003 15:01

What about some free speech on this site? I see the story on the child abuse coverup has been deleted. Dunblane, Hamilton etc.

Child abuse story

by Aidan - IMC Editor

Mon Aug 25, 2003 19:40

The child abuse story was not a story it was a petition and crossposted across the IMC network, breaching two of our editorial guidelines, and so was removed.

If you want to write an orginal factual post about child abuse then feel free

Aidan

Re Cork Money

by Orla

Tue Aug 26, 2003 19:30

It is good to hear that the money went to something proper in the end anyway. I hadn't realised that there were potential prosecutions involved.

I saw your press release about your refusal to pay a fine. Has anyting happened about it?
Good luck on it anyway,
Orla

Orla's query re. Shannon fine

Tue Aug 26, 2003 20:07

My arrest may not happen for quite some time (or it may happen tomorrow). The gardai know where to find me.

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Meeting, Wed. 27th Defend Free Speech, Public Assembly and Activity in Galway

Comments (13 of 13)