asked the Minister for Justice if a barrier was placed across the bottom of Merrion Street, Dublin at 1.30 p.m. on 19th October 1966 so that people such as students, workers in Government buildings, etc. were turned back at the barrier and not allowed to pass through to their work; under whose authority this barrier was erected; and what authority the Gardaí have to stop people going to their place of employment.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Merrion Street Barrier.
32.
The erection of barriers was a natural consequence of the prohibition on meetings or processions in the vicinity of Leinster House on the day in question. The gardaí were concerned to ensure that no persons got past the barriers with the object of holding a meeting or forming a procession and they quite properly required persons who sough to pass through to produce satisfactory evidence they were bona fide.
The NFA meeting itself while it lasted operated as a total obstruction to the passage of pedestrians and vehicles.
Could we now elicit from the Minister the information that, having regard to the fact that 40,000 very orderly people marched through the streets of Dublin last Wednesday and conducted their meeting in a most peaceful way, we will now see no symbols of a Berlin Wall in any street in Dublin in future?
Was there any necessity for this barrier and is the Minister aware that only the gardaí used their discretion and allowed a surge of people to break through——
—— on my instructions.
Certainly not. The Minister gave authority to the gardaí to hold back the people and not allow the wall to be broken but the gardaí used discretion and allowed people to go through. Is the Minister further aware that this wall was a cause of provocation and aggravation to the most respectable body of people who ever paraded through the streets of Dublin demanding justice and that it is the Minister himself who is trying to provoke them into breaking the law?
The only difficulty caused by that was not to decent farmers but to the fomenters of trouble in the Fine Gael Party who seek to perpetrate trouble.
That is an irresponsible statement.
The person who caused all the trouble was the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries.