Gardai free anti-war protesters held in Dail protest

The two anti-war protesters arrested outside the Dáil last night have been released from Garda custody.

One of those arrested will appear in court on public order charges "in the near future", a Garda spokesman said. The other, a juvenile, was freed without charge.

The two men were held at Pearse Street Garda Station for several hours before being released.

They were arrested during violent scenes outside the Dáil as members of the Garda Riot Squad charged several hundred anti-war protesters. Up to 60 uniformed gardaí and Public Order Unit officers, mounted gardaí and a Garda helicopter were mobilised to confront the protesters when they tried to block the entrance to Leinster House.

Socialist party TD Mr Joe Higgins was dragged away by riot police. He claimed gardaí had over-reacted to the situation, which was an "entirely peaceful" protest.

"We had a brutal response by senior gardaí. There was no fracas at all," he told The Irish Timeslast night. "The riot squad just moved in and quite brutally started dragging people away, it was absolutely outrageous".

He said the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, would have "questions to answer" over the protest, including why riot police did not have their numbers displayed.

Mr McDowell, however, insisted on RTÉ radio this morning that gardaí had acted professionally during the protest. "The gardaí are upholding the law, and they are doing so legitimately," he said.

"This is grist to Mr Higgins's mill, he's probably relishing all this," Mr McDowell claimed. "But he has no right to sit in the road and block access to the Dáil. The law is the same for everybody, no matter which side you're on."

He conceded, however, that the fact some officers were not wearing identification badges "was matter of some concern" that he would raise with the Garda Comissioner.

He said a working group, established after the May Day protests last year, has recommendedthat there should be identity numbers on the helmets of officers in the PublicOrder Unit in the future.

A Garda spokesman said they took an "entirely reasonable response" to the situation. "We had advised the leaders of the protest that in the event the protesters sat on the road we would be obliged to move them. So we moved them and it ended in something of a stalemate," he said.