Garda groups call for Love Ulster rally to be planned properly

GARDA associations yesterday said police and the public could not be exposed to the same level of violence which marked the Love Ulster rally last year.

They called for a proper risk assessment to be conducted beforehand and for gardaí on the ground to be properly equipped and briefed before a repeat of the march.

The group behind the Love Ulster rally in Dublin in February 2006 said they had been given the go-ahead for another march for later this year after a meeting with garda bosses in Dublin on Thursday. The march is expected to take place in August or September.

FAIR, which represents unionist victims of the Troubles, said it expected about 3,000 people to attend a similar march.

Wholesale rioting met the march last year, during which gardaí were subjected to torrents of missiles, most of it taken from debris which had been left on O’Connell Street. Members of the public narrowly missed serious injury or worse as the rioting spread throughout the city centre, while other people were subjected to indiscriminate assaults by other rioters.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) was extremely critical of the force’s planning and management of the violence afterwards and lodged a complaint with the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), claiming that no safety statement had been conducted beforehand.

“We did complain to the HSA after the last rally,” said John Egan, GRA president. “Should this event occur again — and we would welcome it — we would be seeking that our members be properly equipped, trained and briefed.

“Our members should not and cannot be exposed to a repeat of the vulnerable position of the last time.”

He added: “We would be seeking a meeting with management to ensure the gardaí, the marchers and the public are kept safe.”

A spokesman for the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) said: “A proper risk assessment should be carried out and sufficient resources provided to deal with whatever incident arises on the day with the safety of members and public in mind.”

A report by gardaí, conducted after the violence of last year, said senior officers had prior intelligence that dissident republicans planned to disrupt the march. But it said they had not foreseen the actions of “hoodlums and gangsters”, who escalated the protests into riots.

More than 120 people were identified as having being involved in the violence last year; so far 85 people suspected of involvement have appeared before the courts.