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.