Strange carry-on at the Emmet commemoration

I WAS amazed by two events connected with the Emmet anniversary commemorations. The most bizarre event took place as we as we stood outside St Catherine’s Church in Thomas Street in Dublin last Saturday at the same time that Robert Emmet was executed 200 years before.

Having listened to erudite historians and ballads, a swarm of Special Branch detectives descended on a group of young people at the front of the crowd and proceeded to jostle and threaten them in a most aggressive fashion.

As an interested bystander I attempted to intervene and was rudely pushed aside. I could not believe this was happening in 2003, 200 years after Emmet's death. Has anyone in the Emmet commemoration committee heard of this strange intervention, or would they care to comment?