Protest rules

Seanachai

If you get approval for a demo or protest in a town or city can another group hold a counter protest in the same place at the same time? I thought that the booking if you could call it that would clash.

Victor

There are very few restrictions on protests and/or counter protests.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/cons/en/html

ARTICLE 40
6 1° The State guarantees liberty for the exercise of the following rights, subject to public order and morality: –

i The right of the citizens to express freely their convictions and opinions.

The education of public opinion being, however, a matter of such grave import to the common good, the State shall endeavour to ensure that organs of public opinion, such as the radio, the press, the cinema, while preserving their rightful liberty of expression, including criticism of Government policy, shall not be used to undermine public order or morality or the authority of the State.

The publication or utterance of seditious or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.

ii The right of the citizens to assemble peaceably and without arms.

Provision may be made by law to prevent or control meetings which are determined in accordance with law to be calculated to cause a breach of the peace or to be a danger or nuisance to the general public and to prevent or control meetings in the vicinity of either House of the Oireachtas.

The pigeon man

Who do you apply to for permission to protest?

I was unaware that such permission was necessary.

The pigeon man

The pigeon man wrote: »

Who do you apply to for permission to protest?

I was unaware that such permission was necessary.

I think it's the Gardai. They're the ones who would generally need to come up with a traffic plan and the likes.

GM228

The pigeon man wrote: »

Who do you apply to for permission to protest?

I was unaware that such permission was necessary.

You don't need permission to exercise constitutional rights. The right of the citizens to assemble peaceably and to express their opinions freely are guaranteed only subject to public order and morality.

The pigeon man

GM228 wrote: »

You don't need permission to exercise constitutional rights. The right of the citizens to assemble peaceably and to express their opinions freely are guaranteed only subject to public order and morality.

Thank you for your reply. This was my belief. It was the op that put me in doubt.

Seanachai

The pigeon man wrote: »

Who do you apply to for permission to protest?

I was unaware that such permission was necessary.

Not the permission to protest itself, but permission to occupy a particular space. I was thinking that you'd have to notify somebody in advance to avoid potential traffic problems.

There was a free speech protest in town before Christmas but a counter demonstration group occupied the space before them. I assumed that when the counter group notified the guards they would have told them that another group had already given notice that they intended to protest at that location.

Peregrinus

SFAIK there is no explicit legal requirement to obtain approval or permission for a protest/demonstration. But there are practical reasons why i t might be a good idea to do so, so that traffic management, protection, etc is available, and (as the query in the OP shows) so as to manage potential conflicts between different events.

But, no, because permission isn't necessary, if two groups want to hold rival protests in the same place the guards can't prevent that by refusing permission to one of the groups.