Visit our special St. Patrick's Day section for more news, recipes, photos and Irish culture

The Occupy Dame Street protesters, who have been camped out on Dame Street since October of last year, have recently said that while they will not move for the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Dublin, they are willing to cooperate with local gardai.

The Evening Herald reports that the Occupy protesters, who began their demonstration in October of last year in conjunction with other worldwide sites, were asked by Garda Superintendent Joseph Gannon to cooperate in removing their campsite prior to St. Patrick’s Day.

Superintendent Gannon wrote that he was requesting the protesters to move “in the context of the ad hoc conversations and consultations we have had with participants in the Occupy Dame Street camp over the last number of months.”

Removal of the camp site, Superintendent Gannon wrote, will help “ensure it [the parade] passes off without risk of injury or harm to members of the community and visitors.”

Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities are expected to attract crowds of up to 500,000 people, according to the Irish Times. The parade typically moves through the Central Bank plaza on Dame Street, which in previous years, has been filled with parade spectators.

John Giles, the grand marshal of the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day parade, has also requested that the protesters vacate Central Bank on Dame Street.

“I think it would be worthwhile for them [the protesters] to postpone the protest for the sake of the parade and for the image it portrays to the rest of the world,” said Grand Marshall John Giles.