79 Comments

  1. M&M asked for information on Belfast protests.
    Fridays protest was stage managed by police.
    The “protest” was a curious collection of union (NIPSA, UNITE), LGBTQ, Palestine, political party (SDLP), paramilitary (?) providing marshalling. I’d place the numbers in the mid thousands, assembled and marched along a prearranged route to City Hall. There they stopped at a line of police.
    Placards : “refugees welcome” “free Palestine” “no person is illegal” “End Racism”
    Lots of pre-arranged chanting and bullhorn.
    The “counter protest” numbering perhaps 100 were kettled into a pre-built corral some 100 yards away from the “protest.” The police prevented their number from growing and they mostly sat on the tarmac and waved a few Union Jack flags.
    Saturday saw a “protest” of similar size march to City Hall, for a rally, complete with sound stage. (No Counter Protest)
    There were localised anti-immigration protests elsewhere in Northern Ireland. It is difficult to glean the extent of any violence or damage.
    https://citizenwatchreport.com/man-jailed-for-watching-riots-in-belfast-remanded-into-custody-despite-not-participating/
    “Cameron Armstrong, an 18-year-old from Belfast, was indeed charged with rioting. Despite his lawyer’s argument that he was merely observing the protests, Judge Rafferty emphasized that being present at the scene of a disorder can be enough to warrant custody.”

    1. Another update:
      Prior to August’s protests, the Palestinian protests on the Gaza deaths and repression had steadily declined to a few hundred. There were, by contrast, thousands at the Pride Parades, seemingly mostly students, but the content had to have a fair amount of finance behind it.
      The latest Palestinian protest – to judge by the flags, numbered less than a thousand.
      For those protesting about Agenda 2030, the ongoing vax related deaths, etc, numbering less than a dozen. Now jokingly discussing who they would (and wouldn’t) share a cell with. The protests about school curriculum seem to have faded away.

    2. At Saturday’s protest I got into conversation with a young (18?) lady – she had never paid tax, so, I’ll guess, a student. Toward the end of the conversation she mentioned that some friends of hers were afraid to leave their home.
      We didn’t get to explore that further. She was too young to experience Belfast and other places in NI since 1970, but seriously? I didn’t ask for more details about her friends. Were her friends refugees fleeing violence in their country? Nigeria, for example? Had they been threatened or was this because of something they saw on TV? Were they here during the Lockdown in 2020?
      Just as things were getting interesting, she had to leave.

Comments are closed.