Political party members questioned after meeting
By Brendan Grehan
A TALLAGHT-based Councillor has criticised An Garda Siochana after she claimed that she and her People Before Profit colleagues were questioned after their weekly branch meeting in Fettercairn Community Centre.
It seems that People Before Profit could have been victims of mistaken identity as dissident Republican party Saoradh were also holding a meeting in the same centre.
The meeting was held in Fettercairn Community Centre
On Wednesday night, March 21, Councillor Emma Hendrick and her colleagues were leaving the centre after their meeting when they were approached by plain-clothes gardai
Cllr Hendrick told The Echo: “We were subjected to questioning about their activity under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.The Gardai took name and addresses of the branch members and were told they were suspected of being “members of an unlawful organisation."
She said: “These actions to me appear like the actions of a totalitarian police state where a group with a political programme that is genuinely to the left of the political centre are harassed by the Gardai.
“It is absolutely disgraceful that An Garda Síochana approached the members of People Before Profit Tallaght in this way. People Before Profit is a legitimate political party with 3 TDs, 1 MLA, 12 councillors and a membership that is 32 county and nationwide.”
Cllr Hendrick told The Echo that People Before Profit intend to write to Garda Ombudsman about the matter and claims that it was garda intimidation.
On Thursday, March 22, Saoradh released a statement which indicated that they had held their South Dublin AGM in the Fettercairn Community Centre on the previous evening .
The Statement said: “As our members arrived at the centre for the AGM they noticed the Garda Special Branch sitting in a car opposite the centre observing people coming and going from the community centre. After the AGM our members left the community centre at 9pm and were surprised to see the Garda Special Branch had in fact already left so our members headed home wondering where they had gone to?”
The Statement added: “In their over-eagerness to harass our party members the Garda Special Branch seem to have mistaken PBP members leaving the community centre as members of Saoradh which then led to this latest episode of state harassment against political activism.”
A spokesman from the Garda Press Office told The Echo: “An Garda Síochána were in attendance in the Fettercairn area on the evening in question. For operational and security reasons we have no further comment.”
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