An eyewitness account from an Occupy Dame Street protester

Young and old Irish are flocking to protest site in Dublin

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The police  are proving a major help; on day one, the Saturday, there was a presence of three uniformed officers, all friendly, with an old-style 6’6” Superintendent observing affairs from his great height, politely but firmly fobbing off all attempts at banter by a few of us protesters. By the Wednesday, however, the police presence was reduced to just the occasional passing foot-patrol.

They have given out their numbers for emergency call-out, and did respond very quickly on the one occasion we needed them on the Wednesday. Nothing serious, just a passer-by who had had too much to drink and became a little too rambunctious for us to handle.

By that Wednesday, and despite their best efforts (pardon the pair of ‘ultras’ here, but everyone is being ultra-careful to be ultra-democratic, and for obvious reasons – this IS a protest against the hijacking of democracy, after all!), leaders were emerging at the OccupyDameStreet protest

At a set hour a couple of times a day there is a group assembly at which anyone can voice an opinion/make a suggestion, but agreement is by acclamation, a minimum 90% needed for any such suggestion to be acted on. Seems a bit ambitious but for the most part, and because on the major issues these are like-minded people, that agreement is forthcoming. As with most groups also, however, there are the talkers and there are the doers. People are known only by their first names, and the ever-smiling Fergal, Stephen the Younger and Stephen the Elder, Robin, Mark and the very hoarse Finbarr all fall into the latter category. Looking after us all, like a mother hen, is Spanish Monica, from the Real Democracy Now movement.

From Monica there is the occasional cluck of disapproval but always, an eye on what’s needed.

Those assemblies are worth noting. It was the first time I had come across what’s become known as the People’s Microphone – someone shouts ‘mike check’ and immediately everyone within ear-shot repeats the call; attention grabbed, from there the speaker has every phrase (offered only in very short bursts) likewise repeated, so that everyone hears what’s being said. I had often wondered how Daniel O'Connell had made himself heard by the hundreds of thousands who attended his mass gatherings in the 1800s – could this have been his method also?

The night on the tiles was rough, I won't pretend otherwise, tough on these worn old bones but very survivable nevertheless, and without question, worth the effort. This is now a worldwide struggle to take back what’s been wrenched from us, a struggle to return to the original ideals of modern democracy – liberty, equality, fraternity; government of the people, by the people, for the people.

Read any of those who were there for the birth of an independent America and see where it says ‘the banks shall be first and the people shall be the last’ – you won’t find any such statement, any such sentiment, but across Europe, in the USA, that’s what’s happening.

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