Occupy Galway protestors agree to move off Christmas market area

Date Published: 14-Nov-2011

BY LIAM CORCORAN AND ENDA CUNNINGHAM

The Galway Christmas market will go ahead as planned after organisers promised to make a number of concessions to the Occupy Galway protestors in Eyre Square last night.

The protestors have agreed to move their camp a few yards to the north-east corner of the Eyre Square plaza, across from Richardson’s pub, before the market starts on November 25.

However, protestors were yesterday at pains to explain that the move will only happen if the market organisers make good on their promise to deliver key demands to the protest camp.

Occupy Galway’s demands include access to drinking water from the Christmas market supply, the removal of the public bike rack on the plaza and the use of four public benches nearby. In return, the protestors have agreed to work in co-operation with the market organisers, as well as Galway City Council and Gardaí.

“This is a gesture to the public,” one protestor told the Connacht Sentinel yesterday. “If the public want the market, that’s fine. We claim to represent the public so it should go ahead. We can co-exist with the traders.

The Galway City Businesses Association and market producers yesterday issued a statement saying that they “welcomed” the consensus reached by the group.

However, city councillor and former Mayor Mike Crowe (FF) said Gardaí were not upholding the law when it came to the Occupy Galway protestors.

“The Garda Siochana in my view are not upholding the law of this land for fear of threat. I don’t say this lightly. This Council is giving out fines for traffic and refuse, yet these people in Eyre Square are being treated different.

“The Gardaí are now saying you can break some of the laws if you like. The Gardaí aren’t doing their job in this case,” said Cllr Crowe at a meeting of the City Council last evening.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel