One year after the Occupy Galway movement was removed by gardaí from Galway city centre, a group of supporters returned to Eyre Square yesterday for a day of political discussion, music and song.
Up to two dozen people participated in initial discussions on issues ranging from bank debt and inequality to rising unemployment and the impact of austerity, while the response from members of the public was “very heartening”, according to organisers.
In a brief address, Tracy Lee said that the Ballyhea/Charleville marchers in Co Cork had written a proposal for bank debt write-down which they were presenting to the European Central Bank.
Liam Heffernan said that work was continuing since last year among different groupings as Occupy Galway had always been an “umbrella” for many campaigns.
Protest camps
Occupy Galway was the last remaining protest camps of its type to be removed – and one of the last internationally – after seven months in the city centre.
As with other camps in Ireland and across over 80 countries, it had been inspired by the Spanish “indignados” movement of mid-May 2011 and the Occupy Wall Street peaceful protest, established in September 2011 in reaction to the global financial crisis.
Participants yesterday said that laptops, musical equipment, files and whiteboards belonging to Occupy Galway had not been returned after some 50 gardaí and city council workers dismantled the camp in the early hours of May 16th last year. This issue has been raised with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, they said.
The Galway camp had been popular with the public, with gardaí quoted as saying it kept crime down in Eyre Square.
