Hundreds to protest outside Dáil as anger grows

HUNDREDS of protesters are expected to gather outside the Dáil today as public outrage intensifies over the child rape debacle.

Radio phone lines were inundated yesterday as furious callers rang chat shows urging people from all over the country to form a mass demonstration at lunchtime.

The protest has been inspired by Monica Rowe, a Dublin mother-of-one who galvanised the conscience of the nation with her impassioned response to the crisis on RTÉ radio.

“I do not have a child with any trouble in that regard,” Ms Rowe, who has a 13-year-old son, said yesterday.

“This all stemmed from total horror and disgust at the way the Government has acted. All they have shown us is one knee-jerk reaction after another. This was a loophole waiting to happen.”

Ms Rowe has become an overnight celebrity as a result of her appeal to people to make their views known outside the Dáil. She believes the protest will get huge support.

Billed as the White Flower March, Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) yesterday urged protesters to wear a white armband or flower.

“You are invited to bring a white flower to represent the innocence of children and the need to protect it — which is what the march is all about,” the RCNI said.

Other rallies are due to take place at the same time outside City Hall in Limerick and in Market, Castlebar, Co Mayo.

Ms Rowe, who spoke on the Gerry Ryan Show yesterday, said while she would not be organising the protest, she would encourage people to come out in their droves at 1pm to show the Government how outraged people are at the decision.

“We want to put pressure on the Government to make them stand up to find a solution to keep rapists in prison. I’m just afraid that if we sit back the Government will be very slow in getting this sorted out,” she said.

The protest is being supported by children’s charity Barnardos, the RCNI, ISPCA and abuse victim support group One in Four.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre also said it had been inundated will calls from rape victims in the wake of the decision.

Chief executive Ellen O’Malley Dunlop said: “It’s very traumatic for people and it’s just not good enough that the Minister for Justice had no idea this was coming down the line. These loopholes now in the law need to be hammered out.”

RCNI executive director Fiona Neary said: “The appalling events that we see unfolding right now, waiting to see which sex offender will be released next and the incoherence of the Government’s response, are the outcomes of the low priority given to sexual violence for successive Governments.

“We have had years of lip service, fobbing off and a doing the bare minimum approach — and now we are seeing the consequences.”