Occupy Galway, fresh start thread

crusher000

kippy wrote: »

Ah right, thats about the 3rd reason (on this post alone) I have seen for their protesting.
So what was their alternative? Camping in public squares?

If you want to know for sure go down and ask them. Oh that's right, you can't,they were moved away democratically by our local elected represntatives. Ah well we may never know now. I'll get back in line and walk of the cliff edge with thr rest of ye whom want the whole world to comply. Over one million Greeks on ration books so I'll wait until we get the same treatment and I can lie back with my one potatoe in my hand with a wry smirk and say didn't we tell you all. Oh it won't happen here cause the Greeks never saw it coming either.

kippy

crusher000 wrote: »

If you want to know for sure go down and ask them. Oh that's right, you can't,they were moved away democratically by our local elected represntatives. Ah well we may never know now. I'll get back in line and walk of the cliff edge with thr rest of ye whom want the whole world to comply. Over one million Greeks on ration books so I'll wait until we get the same treatment and I can lie back with my one potatoe in my hand with a wry smirk and say didn't we tell you all. Oh it won't happen here cause the Greeks never saw it coming either.

I have read the literature that they and those in Dublin had, as well as interacted with them on this type of forum. I never got a sense of what they stood for or what their alternatives were to be honest.

You told us what, we are going the way of the Greeks. Lots of people are telling us that tbh, including some leading economists.

squonk

Back in September/October we were facing new taxes for water and households. Our public purse was in a terrible state and huge cutbacks were coming. The Euro was looking shaky and bankers responsible for the crisis here were walking around like they owned the place without a fear in the world of legal action or jail time. Then Occupy Galway happened.

Now in May we are having new taxes for water and households levied. Our public purse is in a terrible state and huge cutbacks are already made and more are coming. The Euro is looking shaky and bankers responsible for the crisis here are walking around like they owned the place without a fear in the world of legal action or jail time.

So, after 215 days, what have OG done? If something isn't working you stop it. That's what the council and the gardai have done. Galway is a tourist city and the the town and it's hinterland benefits greatly from the influx of tourists. Rightly or wrongly having a scruffy looking camp in the main square is not presenting the city in the best light. The fact that the people running the camp were achieving nothing at this stage is more of a case for shutting it down.

ben.schlomo

Irishgoatman wrote: »

I certainly agree with a lot of what you're saying, but did it really alienate the general public?.
I'm not sure that it did. I never heard of people protesting in the square against the camp, did you?:).

Dont think an anti protest movement is a realistic showing of their lack of support now do you? The fact that they seemingly werent open before 10am for me alienated and annoyed any working person going about there business. Plus the lack of coherent arguments in favour of whatever they stood for certainly didnt add to the numbers joining their ranks.

Robbo

biko wrote: »

I wonder what excuse they used so then can remove the OG. Only 2 months ago the Garda said there was no legal ground for removing them.

Back OT, the Garda interviewed on Morning Ireland mentioned the Public Order Act (which Act and provision was left unsaid). The person arrested was Section 19, so obstructing an officer. They were later released, unclear as to whether this is on a charge sheet or not.

To my mind, maybe Housing (Misc Provisions) Act of 2002 was invoked, namely Section 24 which amends the Public Order Act (1994) and is broad enough to cover the actions of the Occupy Camp.

ben.schlomo

crusher000 wrote: »

If you want to know for sure go down and ask them. Oh that's right, you can't,they were moved away democratically by our local elected represntatives. Ah well we may never know now. I'll get back in line and walk of the cliff edge with thr rest of ye whom want the whole world to comply. Over one million Greeks on ration books so I'll wait until we get the same treatment and I can lie back with my one potatoe in my hand with a wry smirk and say didn't we tell you all. Oh it won't happen here cause the Greeks never saw it coming either.

I dare say if they were camped there another 215 days we still would be none the wiser regarding their aims.

Dan_Solo

squonk wrote: »

So, after 215 days, what have OG done? If something isn't working you stop it. That's what the council and the gardai have done. Galway is a tourist city and the the town and it's hinterland benefits greatly from the influx of tourists. Rightly or wrongly having a scruffy looking camp in the main square is not presenting the city in the best light. The fact that the people running the camp were achieving nothing at this stage is more of a case for shutting it down.

Scatty and all as they were, you can't really blame OG for not breaking the FF/FG/Lab stranglehold on calamatous Irish economic policy surely? You complain about their crappy little camp being their at all while at the same time expecting they should have done what, buy in some AKMs and RPGs from Mali and start picking off politicians?:rolleyes:

Dan_Solo

Robbo wrote: »

Back OT, the Garda interviewed on Morning Ireland mentioned the Public Order Act (which Act and provision was left unsaid). The person arrested was Section 19, so obstructing an officer. They were later released, unclear as to whether this is on a charge sheet or not.

To my mind, maybe Housing (Misc Provisions) Act of 2002 was invoked, namely Section 24 which amends the Public Order Act (1994) and is broad enough to cover the actions of the Occupy Camp.

No problem with any of this. But can anyone find out since when Galway Council decides when and which laws are enforced?

Mrs OBumble

kippy wrote: »

There's a lot of stuff out there that we never paid for before, but we have to now.

Name some ....

crusher000

In fairness if the camp is an eyesore the city council have been turning a blind eye to alot more eyesores around the city. Could this be their campaign to make Galway Tidy that's unless they're the landlords of some of the citys eyesores.

kippy

JustMary wrote: »

Name some ....

Houses, Land, Food, Water, etc etc

squonk

Dan_Solo wrote: »

Scatty and all as they were, you can't really blame OG for not breaking the FF/FG/Lab stranglehold on calamatous Irish economic policy surely? You complain about their crappy little camp being their at all while at the same time expecting they should have done what, buy in some AKMs and RPGs from Mali and start picking off politicians?:rolleyes:

What would you suggest they do? Continue to squat? I don't know what you're rolling your eyes for because they were doing nothing and were going nowhere. They had no readily definable protest points and seemingly no definable plan of action other than sitting in their tents.

Here's what I suggest they should have done. Create one or, at most two definable protest points to the exclusion of ALL other grievances of the collected members.

e.g.

1. Prompt and verifiable action to bring those responsible for the current financial crisis to prosecution and imprisonment if found guilty
2. Demand the government take a harder line on EU bailout negotiations

Those are two examples. If they'd done that they might have enjoyed more popular support and might even be a lot of the way towards becoming a strong political movement. They didn't however and now they're gone.

So, Dan, given that you're attacking my stance on berating those who've done nothing but sit in tents for seven months, I'm sure you'll be able to list off in rapid order the verifiable goals they did have and their successes in achieving those goals. Once we all see that no doubt we'll all change out tune and lament the fact they've gone.

mallachyrivers

MadYaker wrote: »

Im honestly not bothered by their presence in the square and I have no desire to see them removed. From the beginning I said their protest or occupation or whatever you want to call it was pointless and would achieve nothing, I think this has been shown to be true.

Can anyone knowledgeable in law please clarify for us if setting up a camp like that in a place like eyre square is illegal or not? I've heard equal numbers of people saying it is and it isn't.

Well it is and it isn't!

specialops

ben.schlomo wrote: »

Things that should never have been free in the first place such as water you mean. Every other developed nation charges for water, so should we.

As for O.G, glad they are gone, they served no real purpose and were never going to achieve anything meaningful, if you applied the product life cycle to them id have said they reached decline long before Xmas.By all means protest but in a more realistic fashion, sitting in a large compound doing nothing all day is simply going to bring criticism ,such as they get here, onto themselves.

On another point, i see the GA facebook put a link up to pdineens pics from the camp taken on Tuesday, good god it looked manky inside, and they were cooking in these conditions.

Myself and a friend called in, curious and with an open mind, last month, yeah it was manky, not to mention only two of them there who didnt' have a clue what they were on about.
We were asked by an english woman (moaning about Ireland we asked why was she living here) did we want a cuppa, she was spouting pure nonsense and kept contradicting herself, dear god we valued our health too much and legged it

Tym

Houses, Land, Food, Water, etc etc

Oh the glory days, of free food and housing...not to mention the free contaminated water.

scholar007

crusher000 wrote: »

If you want to know for sure go down and ask them. Oh that's right, you can't,they were moved away democratically by our local elected represntatives. Ah well we may never know now. I'll get back in line and walk of the cliff edge with thr rest of ye whom want the whole world to comply. Over one million Greeks on ration books so I'll wait until we get the same treatment and I can lie back with my one potatoe in my hand with a wry smirk and say didn't we tell you all. Oh it won't happen here cause the Greeks never saw it coming either.

At least the Greeks have sunshine, I think I could handle being poor in the sunshine. No money but at least you could still go to the beach and the vino is really cheap over there. It wouldn't be too bad. I don't know why the Greeks are in the streets protesting, they should all head off to the beach.

Tym

Oh btw I noticed someone mentioned pictures on a GA Facebook? What does that stand for?

kippy

Tym wrote: »

Oh btw I noticed someone mentioned pictures on a GA Facebook? What does that stand for?

Galway Advertiser.

kippy

Tym wrote: »

Oh the glory days, of free food and housing...not to mention the free contaminated water.

We got all those for "free" at some point in time.

They were referring to the Galway Advertiser Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/GalwayAdvertiser

Robbo

Dan_Solo wrote: »

No problem with any of this. But can anyone find out since when Galway Council decides when and which laws are enforced?

Speculation on my part, but the Council would most likely have title to the land Occupy were on. They are then free to make a complaint to the Gardai which the Gardai may act upon.

scholar007

All messing and joking aside (well for 5 minutes anyway)

So now they are gone, how did it actually work?
Were the same people there all the time?
Were they transient? i.e. Did they move from one protest to another around the country like a rent a mob?
Did they operate a shift system?
What did they do if they needed the jacks at say 5am in the morning and everywhere was shut?
Did they really have between 300 and 400 pallets on the site?
What exactly did they do all day?
Was their real purpose to form a social grouping of societal outcasts whose raison d'etre and common bond is to rebel against society? Did they really feel like they "belonged" for the first time in their lives and if so what will happen to them now?

biko

scholar007 wrote: »

Was their real purpose to form a social grouping of societal outcasts whose raison d'etre and common bond is to rebel against society? Did they really feel like they "belonged" for the first time in their lives and if so what will happen to them now?

For someone who doesn't know them it seems to me you have a pretty clear presumption of them.
Or is this how you picture anyone who takes part in protest movements?

specialops

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

I'm wondering why the thread was re-opened at all.

Seems a bit pointless like the 'protest'

It seems obvious from reading through this thread that the modding is biased in favour of the now defunct camp.

why is this?

scholar007

biko wrote: »

For someone who doesn't know them it seems to me you have a pretty clear presumption of them.
Or is this how you picture anyone who takes part in protest movements?

No I did a bit of protesting in my student days as you do. But at the end of the day you need to get a life and move on and get a job - Fairly normal things. I suppose what Im trying to get a handle on is were they "full-time protestors" so to speak and will they just move on to the next cause? Seriously it is a bit sad to be sitting in a shack in Eyre square for the last 7 months.

Robbo

I passed by at lunchtime when their assembly was on. Sure enough, Conneely rocked up and couldn't have made a better pantomime villain if he was wearing a cape, top hat and twirling his moustache.

biko

scholar007 wrote: »

No I did a bit of protesting in my student days as you do. But at the end of the day you need to get a life and move on and get a job - Fairly normal things. I suppose what Im trying to get a handle on is were they "full-time protestors" so to speak and will they just move on to the next cause? Seriously it is a bit sad to be sitting in a shack in Eyre square for the last 7 months.

I do understand you but on the other hand they aren't causing any other trouble than being an eyesore for certain [middle class] people that want Eyre Square void of protesters.
And in my view, they show the council and the bankers that some people aren't just writing angry posts on the internet.
Some people are willing to put up with rain and cold for months to show their dismay at how the current and past establishment have ****ed us over. They should be lauded, not denigrated.

snubbleste

Conneely's going to be crowing about his 'victory' for decades to come.

scholar007

biko wrote: »

I do understand you but on the other hand they aren't causing any other trouble than being an eyesore for certain [middle class] people that want Eyre Square void of protesters.
And in my view, they show the council and the bankers that some people aren't just writing angry posts on the internet.
Some people are willing to put up with rain and cold for months to show their dismay at how the current and past establishment have ****ed us over. They should be lauded, not denigrated.

Praise where its due of course but what exactly have they achieved if anything at all?

biko

I don't think they achieved much at all, at least that I know of - see my previous post on how they were too scattered and all encompassing to achieve anything.

But a risk with ejecting them is that it polarises the debate, forcing the sides wider apart instead of letting them engage in peaceful debate. The local politicians are not doing themselves any favours and tbh a lot of them are already held in very low regard.