THOUSANDS OF gardaí with riot training and dressed in riot gear will be ferried around the Republic in a fleet of vehicles shadowing Queen Elizabeth and US president Barack Obama in anticipation of violent protests during their visits.
Gardaí have also stepped up security around Shannon airport, where US military aircraft and troop carriers are still stopping to refuel on their way to and from Afghanistan and Iraq.
The increased patrols around Shannon, which include surveillance flights by the Garda helicopter, have been put in place due to fears that militant elements in the anti-war movement might seek to attack a US aircraft during the visit of Mr Obama.
However, apart from the very significant traffic restrictions being put in place for the two visits, the main element of the Garda’s unprecedented security operation is preparing for public disorder.
While gardaí and the PSNI are fearful dissident republicans will plant hoax explosive devices to cause disruption in the Republic or explode bombs in the North, particularly during the Queen’s visit, a major public order, or riot, situation is chief among the Garda’s security concerns during the Queen’s visit.
The Garda has already requested water cannon from the PSNI in the event large crowds of rioters need to be dispersed at any point during the four-day visit.
A fleet of Garda vehicles and hired coaches will be used to transport thousands of gardaí in riot gear from location to location during the two visits.
These gardaí will be on hand at all of the locations the Queen visits, with the most likely public order flashpoints being in the major urban centres of Dublin and Cork cities.
The Queen’s visits to the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin next Tuesday and Croke Park on Wednesday will be very heavily policed for fear hardline protesters, including militant republican groupings, will stage public protests that lead to violence. The streets around all of the visit locations will be heavily policed and many will be effectively locked down. Riot squad gardaí will at all times be at the ready in the fleet of vehicles, out of sight just streets away.
A similar covert standby operation by public order gardaí will also be put in place around Dublin’s Phoenix Park, where the Queen will meet President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin next Tuesday and visit Farmleigh next Thursday.
A wreath-laying ceremony at the Irish War Memorial Garden, Islandbridge, Dublin, next Wednesday and a State dinner in Dublin Castle that evening will also see a massive uniform Garda policing operation backed by the public order gardaí on standby. Another potential flashpoint will be a visit by the Queen to the English Market in Cork city next Friday afternoon, where once again public order gardaí form a major part of the covert policing operation. Garda sources said the plans to have such large numbers of riot squad members at the ready in all potential flashpoint locations will be similar to the major public order operation put in place on May Day 2004.
On that occasion Ireland held the EU presidency the day the accession states joined the EU. Accession day was marked by ceremonies in Farmleigh, on the fringes of which thousands of protesters clashed with riot squad gardaí for several hours.
Any such scenes during the visits would attract global media attention and would be embarrassing for the Garda and the Government.