Pathetic PEGIDA.

In Blog, Highlights, Politicsby Ed Ludd9 Comments

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Above: rabble’s footage of the fascists legging it off can be seen on Youtube.  Elsewhere, Flickr user BagelCurry shared an album of gorgeous monochrome shots from the demonstration yesterday too.


 

So,  after all their online bluster and hype yesterday saw a pitiful turn out from PEGIDA, while their scattered far-right sympathizers were forced to cower in the side streets of our capital.

When it came down to it pathetic PEGIDA were nowhere to be seen at the GPO. While, on the other hand, buses came from as far away as Cork in a broad coalition that celebrated diversity and was determined nip in the bud any chance of Islamophobia or racism gaining an organised street presence in Ireland.

Speaking on behalf of the coalition that organised the rally, ENAR’s Shane O’Curry summed it up well:

“This broad, nonviolent, festive and enthusiastic turnout demonstrated very loudly that there is no appetite in Ireland for the politics of Islamaphobia and bigotry. It was fitting, on this day of anti-racist mobilisations across Europe, that the GPO was held as a space for the politics of inclusion and hope and against the politics of division, violence and fear.”

Our photographers managed to spot some PEGIDA supporters hanging around on Abbey Street and asked them if the event was cancelled as they left the area.

Their erstwhile leader, Peter O’Loughlin never even made it into the demo, no doubt ending up the victim of his new found notoriety and some fellow public transport users with little toleration for racists on the Luas.

Contrast this dismally damp squib with the couple of thousand people who stood proud at the GPO.

In the end a group of about 15 eastern European fascists on Cathedral St were spotted sniffing around a couple of Gardai for protection, while they were in the process of a street-crime arrest.

They explained to our reporters that they were out to counter “illegal Communism” and then began to aggressively shove our cameras.

 


 

PEGIDA

Above: Some of the gang of PEGIDA sympathizers our reporters came across loitering in a side street. Here’s footage of the same group being stopped making their way to the GPO.


 

At this point, a large crowd from the counter demo had arrived. The PEGIDA lot realised the game was up and legged it down Talbot St winning the 100 metre dash.

Some off them broke off and made it to Marlborough St, seeking refuge in the EuroWorld, hiding themselves among the Saturday afternoon bargain hunters.

By now the Public Order Unit arrived with their dogs. Scenes reminiscent of Rossport came to the city centre with Gardai wildly swinging batons, and little shit given about who they hit – journalists included.

It’s mainstream news that an RTE cameraman was whacked dangerously across his lower body while carrying a weighty ENG camera. The state broadcaster is lodging a formal complaint.  The Irish Times came close too.

In the end, the Gardai cordoned off Talbot St,  shielding the fascists from the growing crowds coming from the counter demo. When word got around that four of the fascists were hiding in Brannigan’s pub, another Gardai blockade was placed around the pub for their protection.

They were escorted out in handcuffs a few hours later.

No doubt the commentary sections of various outlets will be consumed by hackneyed flame wars about peaceful protests and competing rights to free speech.   No better time so,  to consider the words of Max Levitas, a 100 year old Jewish Dubliner and a veteran of the battle of Cable St:

“Ireland’s trade union and labour movement, and all Irish people should take a stand against the fascist Pegida organization and its allies. Down the years, the Irish have left their native shore to find a better life elsewhere and we should not deny to others what was good for ourselves. I was born and raised in Dublin. My parents met and married there, all the way from Latvia and Lithuania. It’s a place for all Irish, regardless of race and religion. Let’s keep it that way and say no to PEGIDA.”

Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.   If  history lessons aren’t your thing, then cast an eye further afield to yesterday’s attack on a refugee solidarity centre in Prague.

A clear illustration of what can go wrong if far-right gangs are allowed roam the streets unchecked.

Read our account of the far-right in Ireland here.

Comments

  1. No gangs, not PEGIDA or your gang doing the chasing should be allowed roam unchecked. And your use of the Max Levity quote to justify it is both disingenuous and pathetic.

  2. “This is Ireland 2016, Racists are protected and the sticks are drawn on the people”

    NO! The sticks are drawn on the Mob that believe THEY are the Police…
    If I was to go around attacking people because I didn’t like what they said or did, I’d be attacking every bloody day…
    Counter protest all you want, but Physical Violence because you don’t like what they say?
    C’mon!!!

  3. Best video yet of yesterday’s events regarding the PEGIDA scum in question. Well done Rabble, you actually got the faces of the neo nazis in question. I believe you are the only media outlet to have done so. I’m so going to share this. Perhaps now these PEGIDA immigrants will consider self deportation. Well done again, excellent footage!

  4. Have you any proof that Pegida Ireland are racist, given that they didn’t get to launch yesterday? Can you share that evidence with us here?.

    What race are Islamists, anyway?

    Could you define “Islamismisation” (the “i” in Pegida) or Islamism, (the ideology behind it) please?

    Are you aware of islamic concepts such as “Taqiya” (lying to non-believers is a permissible practice in Islam) or Hijra (invasion and expansion of Islam through immigration) or the laws governing treatment of unbelievers (kuffars discriminated against as ‘the Other’)? Do you think muslims who are trying to impress or convert you will be upfront about this?

    What is your opinion on Sharia law in Europe – for or against?

    Why are you quoting the clearly inaccurate Shane O’Curry, who described the turnout as ‘non-violent’ and has he (or any of the other organizers) unequivocally condemned the violence, since the protests? Did the organizers have prior knowledge of the threats and if so, what measures did they take to prevent possible violence?

    Are you aware that mass migrations have been deliberately used to destabilize target civilizations – iirc, at least 50 times since WW2. Cuba used it against Florida by flooding it with criminals.

    Any chance that P.I. might be allowed to say their piece and let them either hang themselves or make a valid case? Are citizens of Dublin incapable of making their own minds up and need to be protected by your Thought Police?

  5. A solemn note from the late Irish-based holocaust survivor Franz Frison who summed things up so well in a letter to The Irish Times published on 12th December 1988:

    “If fascism could be defeated in debate, I assure you that it would never have happened, neither in Germany, nor in Italy, nor anywhere else. Those who recognised its threat at the time and tried to stop it were, I assume, also called “a mob”. Regrettably too many “fair-minded” people didn’t either try, or want to stop it, and, as I witnessed myself during the war, accommodated themselves when it took over … People who witnessed fascism at its height are dying out, but the ideology is still here, and its apologists are working hard at a comeback. Past experience should teach us that fascism must be stopped before it takes hold again of too many minds, and becomes useful once again to some powerful interests”

  6. people you will beg rights for help after few years… islam is taking over EU,are you blind?

  7. This counter rally was a victory for Pegida…..we all know who the real fascists are and so do a lot of people now thank to the stupidity of these so called ‘ anti fascists’

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