And here we are told that the right to protest, including blocking roads, is an imprescriptible feature of democracy.

A protest against the government’s handling of the immigration crisis was prevented from proceeding to a busy traffic junction in Coolock by what one woman described as a “wall of Gardai” who refused to allow the protesters to pass.

The ‘Coolock Says No’ group told says that it was holding a now-weekly protest which was attended yesterday “mostly by women and girls who are concerned about the placement of unvetted male migrants into the area” and that people had gathered before setting off at 6pm towards the traffic junction.

However, the protest found that the road was blocked by Garda vans, squad cars and a solid line of Gardai accompanied by the Public Order Unit.

Local woman, Joan Mulligan, said that they were refused leave to pass what she described as “a wall of Gardai blocking the whole road”.

“They were two deep with large Garda vans and squad cars,” she said, “out to stop a peaceful protest. That’s just not right.”

Ms Mulligan said that the protest was entirely peaceful and that Irish people had a right to “peaceful assembly.” She said that it was “rubbish” to claim that the protest was “unsafe”.

She said that political backing for a hard policing line against the protests might have led to the decision to block the protesters’ way last night.

It’s as if they were instructed to say this to us. I feel like its coming from the top, like they want to stop the protests being effective.

Ms Mulligan said that local people were angry at the arrogance of politicians who wanted working-class areas to bear the burden of allowing uncontrolled migration and lax border controls.

We know that thousands of people are coming here without passports. We don’t even know who these people are. That’s why there are so many women on these protests, we’re angry because we’re being ignored, our concerns about our safety are being ignored, our concerns about housing and services – already impossible to get – are ignored.

Government spokespersons have tried to characterise the protests as being exploited by the ‘far-right’.

https://gript.ie/coolock-immigration-protest-prevented-by-wall-of-gardai/