Anger on streets during biggest public rally since Iraq war
- Published: 08 December 2008
Source : Irish Independent
Anger on streets during biggest public rally since Iraq war
By Fiach Kelly
Monday December 08 2008
Anger at cuts in education spending spilled over into the streets at the weekend as up to 70,000 marchers protested in Dublin's biggest demonstration since protests against the Iraq war.
Teachers, parents and children marched from Parnell Square to Merrion Square on Saturday afternoon as a series of nationwide protests against education cuts reached its climax.
Estimates on the turnout varied wildly, with the garda press office putting the figure at just over 40,000, the Irish National Teacher's Organisation (INTO) claiming 60,000 people took part and some speakers at the rally following the march saying 70,000 people were present.
Among the marchers were the usual politicians of all shades -- albeit minus Government representatives, who seem to have learned lessons from Minister for Older People Maire Hoctor's ill-fated attempt to reason with baying pensioners over the medical cards issue.
"The Government have gone into hiding," a mother informed her young boy as they marched past the Gresham. "Why, mammy?" asked the boy. "Because they're afraid of us," she replied.
The huge march was organised jointly by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), the INTO and the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI).
The unions claim that 120,000 people have now marched against the school spending measures in the Budget when previous demonstrations in Galway, Cork, Donegal and Tullamore are included.
Saturday's demonstration was intended to highlight issues such as the increase in the pupil-teacher ratio, the removal of free book schemes and English support teachers, the condition of school buildings and the removal of grants for Traveller education.
Protesters carried numerous placards, including ones which said "Schools Unite Against Cuts", "Leave Our Kids Alone", "Don't Make Our Children Pay" and "28:1, Good Odds for a Horse, Not A Child".
The march caused traffic disruption in the city centre and the large crowd was addressed by several union leaders and politicians, and was also entertained by folk band, The Fureys.
The legions of protesters at Saturday's education march might have thought they had been transported to Stalinist Russia as they walked up O'Connell Street in the bright afternoon chill.
For parked under the Spire were a few tanks, with their guns hoisted skyward, standing between them and O'Connell Bridge.
Support
But these were no Red Army warriors, rather FCA troops who smiled and shook their collection buckets in support.
Fine Gael's Brian Hayes, Labour's Roisin Shortall, and Sinn Fein's Mary Lou McDonald all took aim at the Battman -- already a hackneyed nickname -- with hundreds of protesters carrying placards depicting him and Brian Cowen as "Battman and Robbin" and others wearing Dark Knight-style face masks.
INTO general secretary John Carr told the crowd: "Adults will play a part and pay a fair share in finding a resolution to the current economic climate.
"But we will not support a savage and misguided attack on children, which is this Government's solution.
"It beggars belief that children would be targeted by Government to bail out an ailing economy. It is staggering that newcomer children, Travellers and special needs children should be targeted for additional cutbacks."
The INTO's Declan Kelleher called the cutbacks an "act of educational vandalism".
Don Ryan, president of the TUI, said that the cuts "will severely damage most of our schools and colleges".
ASTI president Pat Hurley claimed that education was neglected throughout the Celtic Tiger years.
"As a result there is no fat to trim from the education sector," he said. "The many cuts cannot fail to have an effect on every school in the country. Every child and their family will be affected."
- Fiach Kelly
