‘I felt I was running for my life. I ran and ran’: Joan Burton testimony

Joan Burton had been trapped inside a Garda car for approximately an hour, with people surrounding the vehicle, preventing its leaving, shouting abuse, banging on the car, and throwing missiles.

The abuse was “the usual stuff, bitch, c**t,” derogatory names for women and for gardaí, she said. “Just everyday stuff, I suppose, in a way.”

One woman was banging on the car, wishing all sorts of stuff upon her, the politician told the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court Thursday.

“Illnesses, death. She was just beside herself with rage.”

A number of gardaí were trying to keep the crowd away from the car, but were having difficulty. “People were kind of attacking the car,” she said.

Sometimes coming close to tears as she described the events of November 15th, 2014, in Jobstown, Tallaght, Co Dublin, the silence in the crowded courtroom was in marked contrast with the noise and intensity she was describing.

Having been invited to Jobstown to address graduates at the An Cosán community education centre, she was subjected to abuse and hit twice on the back of the head, once with a water balloon, as she took part in a procession of graduates towards the nearby St Thomas’ Church.

One tall young man was “sort of in my face”, putting a camera phone up to her and saying “speak to us Joan, speak to us Joan”. People were shouting “shame on you”, and general abuse.

A crowd of water charges protesters gathered outside the church as she addressed the event, and she was eventually advised by gardaí that she had to leave. But when she rushed to a waiting unmarked car along with her adviser, Karen O’Connell, they found themselves trapped.

At one stage she turned and saw Solidarity TD Paul Murphy among the crowd. "He had a megaphone and he was speaking." With all the noise she couldn't hear what was being said. "He looked pretty happy with himself, I have to say. He was smiling pretty broadly. He was the man with the megaphone."

Mr Murphy, one of seven defendants who have pleaded not guilty to charges of false imprisonment of Ms Burton and Ms O’Connell, listened intently to his political rival’s evidence, at times taking notes, and at one stage wanting to pass a note to his counsel, Sean Guerin SC.

Examined by Sean Gillane SC, for the prosecution, Ms Burton described the terror she felt as she and her adviser, along with two gardaí, found themselves trapped inside the car. The ordeal lasted for approximately an hour, she said.

A garda officer told her that they were going to move her and Ms O’Connell to another vehicle. He said “when we tell you to move, you have to move”, she told the court. As she recalled what happened next, she appeared to make an effort to control her emotions.

Her husband, Pat Carroll, and her daughter, Aoife, were among those listening in court to her testimony. "At that stage it was very terrifying," she said. Two lines of gardaí formed a cordon down which she and Ms O'Connell were to go towards a garda jeep.

“The inspector stood in front of me, walking backwards, saying look at me, look at me.” But her left shoe was beginning to fall off. The inspector advised her to forget about the shoe, but the crowd was surging forward and she was concerned about what might happen if they broke through. “Quite frankly, I was terrified I was going to fall,” she told the court. “The crowd was very, very wild.”

She was thinking: “How would we run if I didn’t have my shoe?” She got to the garda jeep but it was also quickly surrounded by the angry crowd. The jeep was able to move, but only painfully slowly, only inch by inch. The protestors and the noise continued, she said.

The gardaí outside the vehicle were being pelted with eggs, and a jeep window was shattered. “The guards were getting a horrible time.” Coke and water bottles were being thrown. At one stage she saw Mr Murphy walk away in the company of a garda “and he actually looked very happy with himself, very self confident”.

Her view was mostly restricted but at one stage she noted some young men up ahead, the type of men who might work out, she said. She was worried about what would happen if the doors of the jeep were wrenched open. “Where would we try to run to?”

After approximately two hours she was once again told she was to be moved to another vehicle, and was once again told that, when she was told to move, she had to move.

When the moment came, she got out of the car and ran. “I felt I was running for my life. I ran and ran. Karen was beside me.”

There were a number of guards around her, on open ground. “To be honest, I just legged it.” She reached a car and a garda driver immediately drove her away at speed. O’Connell got into a second car, which drove her away. She was taken towards Saggart, and then to the Phoenix Park, where she was able to visit the toilet and get a cup of tea.

“I sought at all times to maintain my composure,” she told the jury of five women and seven men. “I felt it was the best way to help people maintain calm.”

The prosecution examination took approximately an hour, ending at midday. At that stage Mr Murphy’s counsel began his cross-examination, and the questioning switched from the events that day in Jobstown to bailouts, Government decisions, the public finances, Labour Party promises, the Troika, water charges, anti-austerity protests and the effects of the policies Ms Burton oversaw when Minister for Social Protection, as she was in 2014, on the people of Jobstown.