Mick Clifford: Protesters in Dublin tell Donald Trump they're 'scarlet for yer ma'
People taking part in an anti-Trump protest march through Dublin. Picture: Clodagh Kilcoyne/PA Wire
Donal Trump was in the air when things kicked off in Dublin city centre.
Not that it would have mattered anyway, but there was a great turn-out to send him on his way. They gathered at the Garden of Remembrance and set off down Parnell Square soon after 1pm, steady and determined to let the world know that the Orange One should have stayed at home.
The chants were varied in how they dissed Trump, and there was some choice drumming to keep rhythm. One large man was beating on a large drum with a pair of wooden coathangers, but sounded the business.
At the front was that warrior of protest Richard Boyd Barrett, full throated and determined to keep on keepin’ on against the latest outage. He was joined at the top row by fellow TDs Ruth Coppinger, Rory Hearne and a familiar face that turned out to be Brian Stanley, formerly of Sinn Féin.
Everywhere there were gardaí, in yellow, in black, on bikes and loitering beside any of the whole fleet of vans that sat ready and waiting in the arteries leading from O’Connell St.
After a few pauses, the marchers took off, led by a patrol car, everyone responding to the chats emanating from RBB and his comrades in the front row, like responsorial psalm.
“Donald Trump can you hear?” And the response. “No hate and no fear”
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The great thing about organising a protest against Trump is that there is a whole array of objectionable aspects to his persona such that a disparate group can all come together under one banner of protest. Still, for the greater part, the event in Dublin was largely concerned with his policy on Palestine.
Right along the parade that marched down through the city’s main thoroughfare, the black, green and red of the Palestinian flag billowed in the strong Autumn breeze. There were a few tricolours and plenty of posters — the best one being a small piece of cardboard on which was written ‘Scarlet for yer ma’ — but this was to the greatest extent a show of solidarity with the oppressed of the Middle East.
There was a group called Grandfathers for Justice In Palestine and another under the banner Healthcare Workers for Palestine. One smallish section consisted of men in black, including hats, scarves and dark glasses, channelling something that might have landed sartorially between Hamas and dissident Republicans.
A few miles away in the hour before things got underway, the assembled chosen guests in the US embassy giggled through Trump’s efforts at humour in the opening phase of his address.
Then he launched into attempting to demean Joe Biden and the reaction was silence. He went on to give his virtual reality version of how he is doing in the job — America has never been as hot, I am the greatest — and you could nearly feel the boredom through the TV screen.
Back in the real world in the city centre, the mood was light. Early on there was some suggestion that some pro-Trump crowd might turn up looking for trouble, but that notion dissipated as the column of protest flowed over the Liffey and onto the southside. There was a sighting of a small stars and stripes being wielded near the GPO but that was the extent of it.
Interestingly, on a protest that had an anti-war international flavour, there was only one prominent pro-Ukraine poster. Make of that what you will.
One man without a flag was Declan Alcock from Carlow. “I work in healthcare and I’m here to protest against Trump’s foreign policies,” he says. "It’s affecting us all with the price of fuel and his wars in the Middle East.”
Louise from Wicklow, who doesn’t want to give her second name is wielding a poster with an image of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“I’m here in solidarity with all the victims and survivors of sexual violence and to call for the end of the gaslighting of Benjamen Netanyahu’s puppet Trump and the patriarchy.”
She sees Trump as “the king of patriarchy" but she has mixed views on whether he should have been invited into the country.
“I understand what they have to do but I’m on the fence about it,” she says. “I’m here for myself, I’ve been complaining about this man for 10 years.”
On stage outside the Dail, the Irish Neutrality League’s Sarah O’Rourke noted that thirty different groups had come together for the event. She gave a shout-out for kindred spirits in Shannon, Clare and Cork.
And then she made some noise about the government trying to undermine neutrality, which may have been a bit off-cue for the occasion, or maybe not.
In some ways, it was a hint that there will be other days out for the banners and the loudhailers, long after Trump has retired to the nineteenth hole and left us all in peace.
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