Come Here To Me!

This quote is not in relation to last week’s police violence at the student demonstration but instead is taken from The Irish Times editorial of May 14, 1968. It is in reference to a Garda baton charge on 50 supporters of the Dublin Housing Action Committee, most of whom were students, outside City Hall the night before. The attack left three protesters needing hospital treatment.

The baton-charge on City Hall was the start of one of the most eventful weeks, in one of the most eventful years of radical student politics in Dublin.

A couple of days after, Gardai attacked around a dozen members of the left-wing group The Internationalists, outside Trinity Library, who were protesting against the visit of the Belgian King and Queen. The violence was prompted after the police took exception to the student’s banner which read ‘Lumumba – Killed by Belgian Imperialism’.

The sight of police beating students on campus along with the uninformed press coverage that followed prompted an almost spontaneous demonstration against police brutality. Over a thousand students marched on Pearse Street police station the day after. (This has to be one of the biggest anti-police brutality marches in Dublin’s history). After reading out a letter of protest, they marched on the Independent House on Middle Abbey Street to voice their anger at the way the Evening Herald covered the story.

The newspaper reports show an eerily similar rundown of events to what happened at the student protest last week.

“… a group of peaceful demonstrators, including students, were carrying on a picket when, without provocation, Gardai moved in and physically manhandled them. Many of these Gardai were without visible identification numbers. In the ensuing fracas is (sic) seems many Gardai used methods which would justify the use of the term ‘police brutality'” – Mr. Alan H Matthews (President, TCD SRC). The Irish Times, May 14, 1968 (Note: Alan is now a Professor of Economics at TCD)

“… But there are too many accounts by reliable witnesses of acts of unnecessary roughness and sometimes brutality by individual guards to make the most recent complaint seem frivolous” – Editorial, The Irish Times May 14, 1968

“Later in Grafton street students were again manhandled. We deplore as police brutality this needless use of force involving the striking of students and onlookers. We must further protest at the inaccuracy of the press reports.” – Labour Party, TCD. The Irish Times, May 16, 1968
 

If anyone has photographs or memories from this period of student protests, please get in touch.

These two articles may also be of interest:

+ A brief look at UCD’s radical history from 1968-70; The move to Belfield and the ‘Gentle Revolution’.

+ One activist’s account of student politics in TCD in the 1980s; http://anarchism.pageabode.com/andrewnflood/dublin-student-activism-tcd-1980s