Hundreds protest against Jobstown ruling in Dublin city

Several hundred people held an "impromptu" rally in Dublin city centre on Saturday after a 17 year-old was found by Dublin Children's Court to have falsely imprisoned Joan Burton and her adviser during a water charges protest in 2014.

Up to 1,000 demonstrators gathered at the Central Bank on Saturday afternoon before marching along the quays for a rally at the Children’s Court in Smithfield, where the teenager was discharged conditionally on good behaviour for nine months.

Judge John King said the protest at Jobstown, Tallaght in which the schoolboy - then aged 15 - participated was not peaceful and was contrary to public order and morality.

The former Labour Party leader and her adviser Karen O’Connell were trapped in two Garda cars for three hours during the water charges demonstration in November 2014.

Saturday's protest was attended by Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy and party colleague councillor Kieran Mahon, who will both appear as defendants in a trial scheduled for next April relating to the Jobstown protest.

Independent TD Joan Collins and Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan were also among the marchers, as was the 17 year-old himself who, in accordance with the judge's sentence, will not receive a criminal conviction if he maintains a clean record for the next nine months.

“What’s happened is an outrage and the key issue here is the judgement, that someone has been found guilty of false imprisonment for participating in a protest,” said Mr Murphy.

“Peaceful protest has been defined as false imprisonment, so it’s an extremely serious issue for everybody who would ever intend to exercise their right to protest.

“He [the 17 year-old] is outraged at the fact that he’s been found guilty. He’s a young man who is active in his community, who is a credit to his community, who was protesting standing up against austerity, and for that he has been found guilty of a very, very serious criminal offence,” he added.

Organisers confirmed that gardaí were not notified of the procession in advance, and there was some travel disruption in Dublin city centre with two on-call ambulances caught in the resultant traffic on Aston Quay for a period.