Blair Leaves Dublin Unscathed

7th Sep 2010

Like the Cork footballers a fortnight before him Tony Blair got a bit of a test in Dublin last weekend but like most battles involving The Pale it had little substance and in the end he escaped with ease.

Footage of the protest bizarely accompanied by Eminem

The former British prime minister and staunch ally of George Bush and his War on Terror, has released his controversial memoirs and was at a high security book signing in Eason's in O'Connell Street on Saturday.

All hell broke loose as the Dublin mob tried to break the law and attack Blair by hurling projectiles at him and attacking Gardaí. Democracy and the right to protest has never shared much space with integrity in The Pale (the shocking scenes of the 2006 Love Ulster Parade at the exact same location on O'Connell Street come to mind) so the scenes there on Saturday were quite embarrassing to watch as it descended into the usual chaos and plethora of "martyr arrests" secretly desired by hard left socialist groups.

One group, Éirigí has posted footage of their members confronting Gardaí on their website with, cringingly, an overdubbed Eminem track - an artist with a penchant for violent lyrics and drugs. A shared disregard for the law clearly the connection.

There's no method more clichéd to grab newspaper headlines than claims of "police brutality" and any potential sympathy from the public at large diminishes. Irish people regularly watch the English Premiership so they are extremely adept at separating genuine foul play from staged dives.

Getting stuck into a Garda and then whinging when she draws her baton and gives you a couple of slaps with it is laughable and almost worthy of a few clobbers on its own for pure stupidity.

Most Irish people know someone in the Gardaí - a GAA comrade, a nephew, niece or friend of a friend but few of us know people in these protest groups so it would be wise for them to not turn on those duty bound to keep the peace if their intention is to sway public opinion against 'war mongers' like Blair.

The last embarrassing protest in Dublin in 2006 when the Gardaí were also attacked

A number of nearby shops had to pull down their shutters because they feared that the behaviour of hysterical members of anti-violence groups were getting, ironically, too violent.

We all know Blair, like most politicians, is a chancer and his memoirs have to be read with keen cynicism but if any Irish citizen went to another country under the threat of violence and wasn't given adequate protection by that state Ireland would be outraged.

Many Taoisigh went to Northern Ireland with half a division of the British Army watching over them under threat from Unionist protestors who saw them as sympathetic to the IRA who were murdering their brethren in a vicious sectarian terrorist campaign. Every country, legitimate or otherwise, must ensure law and order is maintained.

An Garda Síochana by their very name exist to keep the peace: a word that should strike a chord with those claiming to be vehemently anti-war. Blair is guilty of serious misjudgement over weapons of mass destruction and the disastrous aftermath in Iraq but he brought peace to Northern Ireland so his case isn't black and white.

That's why he has produced a book to give his side of the story which he is entitled to do here in the free world. Likewise anti-war groups can protest and shout all they want but taking on the Gardaí is so counter productive its laughable.

Kate: Another Corkonian showing the Dubs how it should be done

Cork's Kate O'Sullivan from the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Group, a crowd with far more integrity than Éirigí and who usually conduct their protests on Patrick Street in an orderly fashion, had a better idea. She queued up with people outside Eason's and when face to face with Blair attempted to make a citizen's arrest as he signed her book.

The young Corkonian was, perhaps, a bit naive that her plan would work but it got the attention she needed and nobody was injured. That's far more effective than getting stuck into a few beefy country lads in uniforms in front of TV cameras.

These groups have noble aims and their presence is healthy in a democracy but mob rule has no place here.

Click here for another story about law and order breakdown in Dublin