Water protester arrest controversy spreads abroad

The controversy over the recent arrest of Irish Water protesters after Tánaiste Joan Burton was trapped in a car has spread abroad.

Details supplied by the Department of Foreign Affairs show that four Irish embassies have received letters complaining of the actions of gardaí or been subjected to protests themselves since the decision earlier this month to arrest dozens of people involved in the Tallaght incident last November.

Information given by Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan at the request of Socialist Party TD, Paul Murphy, shows that between February 9 and 16 the embassies in London, Stockholm, Vienna and Edinburgh received the correspondence or were the subject of demonstration. The “letters of protest relating to the policing response to incidents at a protest in Jobstown, Tallaght” were sent to the embassies in London, and Stockholm, Sweden, with a small “peaceful protest” also taking place outside the Irish embassy in Vienna, Austria.

Mr Murphy, who was an MEP before winning last May’s Dublin South-West Dáil by-election, told the Irish Examiner the European letters and protests were “organised mostly by sister parties of the Socialist Party”.

While the information was not detailed in the Department of Foreign Affairs’ formal response, he said a further protest was also held in Hong Kong.

In addition, “a couple of letters of solidarity” have also been sent by groups in Colombia linked to Mr Murphy’s previous MEP work on the need to support free trade in the Latin American nation.

News of the correspondence — which was provided by the department after a specific request by Mr Murphy — came after the TD and more than two dozen other protesters, some as young as 16, were arrested over the Jobstown event on November 15.

The protest saw Tánaiste and Labour Party leader Joan Burton trapped in a car for more than two hours after hundreds of people flocked around the vehicle shouting “peaceful protest”.

All of the individuals who were arrested were interviewed by gardaí for a number of hours before being released without charge, with files being sent to the director of public prosecutions.

While gardaí have insisted the moves are standard procedure and the Government has said it is not involved, anti-water charge protesters and the Socialist Party have repeatedly labelled the moves as “political policing” and an attempt to scare people into compliance.

The issue has gained further attention in recent days after the jailing of five people for up to 56 days over their decision to break a court injunction preventing them from being within 20 metres of water meters as they are installed.

A number of these individuals went on hunger strike, but ended it yesterday.