Spectre of Guantanamo Stalks US Ambassador in Galway

One Person Arrested

From the newswire [3:06pm Fri Mar 26th 2004]:

UPDATE: arrested person has been released

"One person has been arrested in the past hour while protesting against the US Ambassadors visit to NUI, Galway. He is being held in Mill St Garda Station on some bogus charge, so anyone in the vicinity, please come down & show your support.

The visit began this morning in the main quad, where the Bush appointed US Ambassador, James Kenny, was to meet with local whigs. It appeared as though the whole morning shift from Mill St. was in attendance, along with a number of Special Branch & various assorted Spooks in Suits. Banners were grabbed and a few scuffles took place, as they tried to smuggle the publicity-shy Ambassador in through a back entrance.

From there it was on to a planned ‘meet & greet’ with selected American students, which was held in Moffets café, one side of which was conveniently made of glass. This gave Kenny a pretty good view of the thirty or so people present. Some of them were dressed in orange jump suits, shackled & kneeling. Others brandished Palestinian flags and other banners people had cobbled together on the morning of the protest. The poor old Ambassador had to strain to hear what students were saying above the shouts from outside, bangs on the window, whistling, drumming & the Tibetan horn someone had fortuitously brought along.

The arrest was made, as Kenny emerged from the quad after lunch, by a couple of over enthusiastic cops who were extremely heavy handed in their approach. A number of people tried to stop the cop vans, one of which contained our arrested friend, from leaving but they were also dragged out of the way & threatened with arrest."