Limerick Post reporter Andrew Clair took to the streets at a recent pro-Palestinian protest, a familiar sight in the city centre each Saturday, to ask some of the regular demonstraters what keeps them coming back to show solidarity on Shannonside.
FOR many months now, the Limerick branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign has turned out on the streets of the Treaty City, marching from Bedford Row in protest of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Demonstrators show out each Saturday without fail, often in numbers close to 100 or higher. For some, it has even become a means of forging their own community and meeting new people. But what keeps them coming out?
Founding member of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Zoe Lawlor, who leads the weekly protests on Shannonside while delivering speeches on the evolving situation in Palestine, says that the group “have been able to march every Saturday with a couple hundred people”.
“We do some chanting, we march, we have speeches. We tend to get out every Saturday. It’s great, a community has kind of developed, people have made new friends that didn’t know each other, and that’s really nice to see.”
But despite the burgeoning social scene the protests might create, those turning out are there for a reason – one they feel is falling largely on deaf ears.
‘No consequences’
Zoe claims that “there’s no consequences” to any of the actions being carried out by Israeli forces in Gaza” and that the Irish government is part of facilitating the “impunity that allows them to commit more atrocious crimes every day”.
“There must be sanctions. The Irish government talks a good talk, but they do not back it up with action.”
One protester, named Bob, told the Limerick Post that he has been involved in the pro-Palestinian movement since long before the fallout from the recent October 7 attacks.
“[I first got involved] in the late 1940s,” he shares. “Since then, I’ve worked in the Middle East, I’ve seen first-hand some stuff that was not pretty.”
As regards media coverage of his campaign’s cause, Bob says that “the press is very, very muted – should we say, to put it politely. I would like to see the Irish press and RTÉ be a little bit more proactive in stopping an international crime.”
‘I went to my first rally in 1982’
Another veteran demonstrator, Mike Commins, says he has been involved in the pro-Palestine movement for more than 40 years.
He says he first got involved “when I was 13, I went to my first rally in 1982”.
Drawing the focus of his campaigning closer to home, Mike says that he “would like (the government) to start inspecting the flights in Shannon so that we can be assured that no weapons are going to Israel from America through Ireland”, highlighting the fact that Ireland is “a neutral country”.
Jack Gory, a college-age protester, told this reporter that he feels as though Irish people often identify more with the Palestinian people than other Western nations.
“We can clearly see the role of history. We have occupied land that we’ve seen as well in our own history. I suppose that, in essence, we’ve been a very progressive nation as well,” he said.
Many demonstrators expressed feelings that Europe and its allies have largely ignored cries like theirs for change in the Middle East.
“The concern is that it seems the Western governments are closing their eyes to it, they’re closing their ears to it, and not taking enough action on it,” said Eddie O’Sullivan after the march drew to a close.
“There’s over 20,000 children missing. God knows how many people have been killed. The Palestinians are trapped in Rafah and they’re shooting fish in a barrel at this stage.”
