Events at Tara Today - Protestor Arrested

meath | environment | news report Wednesday August 01, 2007 13:23 by KOM

Received via "TaraPixie" by Mobile communication - 12:50pm

"A concerned active citizen, Danny, climbed onto the jib of a digger at approx 6.30am this morning on the M3 construction site off the N3, just opposite Soldier's Hill at Garlow Cross, Dublin Road going into Navan."

Danny on Dozer - 9:00am - 01/08/07 - Tara

“A concerned active citizen, Danny, climbed onto the jib of a digger at approx 6.30am this morning on the M3 construction site off the N3, just opposite Soldier's Hill at Garlow Cross, Dublin Road going into Navan. He had an Irish tricolour flag with him, covered his face with a T-shirt, and he wore his own hard hat, high visibility jacket and site boots. At the same time approx 8 supporters gathered around the entrance of the site, bearing banners and placards. A lot of the rush hour traffic beeped support as they drove down the N3. Then, Sword security arrived, along with Wills Bros and SlAC Ferrovial workers as per their usual working day. Security surrounded the digger, along with construction workers. The Gardaí arrived, and spoke to the protester, taking his personal details. 2 dump trucks parked in front of the digger, and tilted their earth mover, so the digger was not visible to us, or the general public. We expressed our concern about Danny's welfare to the Garda, and he said he didn't personally want to be present, he was just doing his job, and it was his job to get Danny down safely. A cherry picker was made out of a forklift and a palate and was placed on one side of the digger arm. A real cherry picker was placed on the other side of the digger, a Garda and a worker (one of whom we can confirm is Marcus Hargraves) was placed in each cherry picker. They proceeded to drag Danny off the arm of the digger by force, first taking his Irish tricolour from him. Once in the cherry picker, they lowered him down to the ground, where the Gardai then linked him, handcuffed him, and escorted him off site in the squad car. The Garda station in Navan is unable to answer our questions satisfactorily, and in fact have tried to prevent us finding out all the details relating to this case. All we know is Danny has now been taken by the Gardai to some court in Dublin 7. We have phoned our solicitor on his behalf." Ends.