Civil Defense - Powers of Arrest

amen

Hypothetically I was at a charity event (with my children) in a Village in the west of Ireland slightly north of the main city of the west if Ireland.

Upon leaving the charity event (6 pm) I needed to cross the main road to get to the provided parking.

At the time of leaving there was a 10K road race on. As the main road has a limited/patchy hard shoulder the race organisers had placed some reflective tape along the footpaths/hard shoulder(what bits there were).

A civil defence member was patrolling the area and told myself and some others leaving the event that we couldn't cross the road as there were runners (Parents and children). That was fine. Once there was a gap in the runners (they were fairly spread out with gaps of 2-3 minutes) those waiting went to cross the tape and road to the car park.

The Civil Defence member told us we couldn't cross as there was a race on and we would have to wait until it was finished ( approx 25 minutes). I politely pointed out that further down/up the road other Civil Defence members were allowing others to cross the road and walk along with the runners.

Again she told me that I couldn't cross the road. When I asked for her name (no name visible) she told me that she didn't need to supply it and that it was an offence not to obey her instructions and that she would have me and anyone else crossing the road arrested.

At this myself and several of the other Parents laughed and just went around the tape (where there were no runners).

So Hypothetically does
A: A civil Defence member have to identify themselves when asked
B: Do they have any powers of arrest above the average person and if so under what circumstances can they use them
C: Can the Civil Defence just turn up and steward an event or do they have to be requested/invoked by the Garda/County Manager etc
If the Civil Defence appear to be acting as Security at an event do they have be registered with the relevant state security body ?

hullaballoo

Have a hypothetical read of the charter, please.