FEE activist 'manhandled' by minister at NUI Galway protest

All images by Kevin O’Connor.

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Kevin O’ Connor from Sin (NUI Galways student paper) has written the following article:

Minister for Community, Rural, and Gaeltacht Affairs Eamon O’Cuiv was today (December 10th) forced to defend himself against allegations that he attacked a student during a protest last night in NUIG. The incident occurred when the Minister was attempting to enter the Quadrangle building for the launch of plans for a new Engineering building by Education Minister Batt O’Keefe. Minister O’Cuiv has defended his actions by saying he felt under threat from the students and was protecting his secretary and himself from being crushed against a wall. O’Cuiv also claimed that some of the students were brandishing sticks.

The protest, which was organized by the NUIG Students’ Union and FEE (Free Education for Everyone), was originally planned as a peaceful demonstration in response to the visit by Education Minister Batt O’Keefe. Minister O’Keefe was visiting NUIG to announce plans for the building of a new €50million Engineering building on North Campus.

Around fifty to seventy students began to gather at the main entrance to the Aula Maxima (Quadrangle) at seven p.m. Students originally intended to ‘sit-in’ at the main entrance to the Aula Maxima in preparation for Minister O’Keefe’s arrival. Several students brought along homemade banners and placards.

Confusion among the protestors over whether the Minister was to arrive at the front or the rear entrance to the quad led the protest leaders to decide to spread the crowd between several entrances to the building. By the time Minister O’Keefe arrived, a number of students had gathered in the road to prevent the Minister from driving up to the entrance. When a number of Gardai failed to move the protestors, the Minister exited his car and decided to walk the fifty or so yards to the rear entrance of the Quadrangle. The Minister was surrounded by a number of Gardai who were forced to push through the crowd of protestors who had now gathered at the rear entrance in an attempt to stop the Minister from gaining access to the building. A brief scuffle erupted and one protestor fell over a plant pot, this caused confusion in the crowd and opened up a brief gap in the blockade. The Minister, seeing his chance, pushed a number of students out of the way and entered the building safely.

The protestors milled around for a number of minutes chanting slogans at the window of the room where the Minister was posing for photographs. The protest was then moved to the internal courtyard of the Quadrangle where large banners were unfurled and the chants advocating free fees began again using megaphones. This went on for several minutes under the watchful eye of two campus security guards as the protest started to die down. The protest organizers were gathered in the middle of the courtyard deciding on their next course of action. It was at this point that Minister Eamonn O’Cuiv arrived at the main entrance to the Quadrangle escorted by his personal assistant. The protestors were caught off guard as the Minister passed by the group and almost managed to make it into the main entrance to the building before the protestors began blockading several doors inside the courtyard. The Minister stood facing the protestors for several seconds, trying to consider his next course of action. He then tried to engage the crowd in a dialogue but was shouted down by several protestors. One of the security guards began to escort the minister to another entrance at the top of a short staircase, the bulk of the protestors stood at the bottom of the staircase chanting while one security guard blocked the bottom of the stairs and the other tried to unlock the door. A minority of protestors then began to climb over the steel staircase barrier. It was at this point that Minister O’Cuiv grabbed one protestor by the scruff of his jumper and began to shake him. While this was happening more and more students began to climb up the stairs and crowd around the Minister and his assistant. The security guard, unable to open the lock, began to bang on the door loudly while the protest organizers, realizing that he situation was about to take a turn for the worse, told the individual protestors to get down from the staircase and that they weren’t achieving anything.

The door was then opened and the Minister and his assistant slipped through it, leaving the two security guards to be shouted at by the protestors who were storming the staircase. One of the organizers of the protest, Muireann O’Dwyer, Students’ Union President was then heard to say, “roll up the banners, we’re going home, this is ridiculous.”

As the crowd was leaving the Quadrangle after the incident, several Garda cars began to arrive on the scene with five or six uniformed Gardai entering the courtyard. It is understood that the Taxi driver who had dropped off Minister O’Cuiv phoned the Gardai.

Many of the protestors then attended a post protest discussion in The Hub, the café under the Students’ Union to discuss the events of the night. Some protestors felt that the crowd had not gone far enough in their efforts to stop the Ministers from gaining access to the Quadrangle and wanted to go back and continue the protest, while other students said that they found the experience unnerving and that they “were surprised by the threat of violence.”

When photographs of Minister O’Cuiv manhandling the student emerged this morning, he was forced to defend himself in the national media against accusations of assault. The minister’s first response on RTE news was that he reacted out of fear of being “squashed against a wall when fifty or so students crowded around him.” As the day went on, several other reports emerged, claiming that the Minister was trying to “protect his personal secretary against violent students.” A spokesperson for the Minister said that “the secretary was squashed up against the wall with students kicking her and one of them waving a big stick at her.”
Sin understands that the “stick” in question was a wooden handle of a placard that had come unstuck from its board during the earlier scuffle with the Education Minister and was being used at the time of the O’Cuiv incident to beat a piece of board in order to make noise.

Sin caught up with Student’s Union President and protest organizer Muireann O’Dwyer to ask her how she thought the protest went; “The protest went well for the most part. The students made a very clear point about their opposition to fees. The main aim was not to allow Minister O’Keefe to visit NUIG without being made aware of the students’ strong opposition to his policies of cut backs and fees and that message was clear. It was only when Minister O’Cuív arrived that the atmosphere seemed to change. He was clearly angry at students from the start, and his actions really changed the tone of the protest, and have since brought a lot of negative attention onto an otherwise peaceful event.”

When asked about the perceived “threat of violence” commented upon by some female students O’Dwyer responded that “That student said she felt the atmosphere changed when Minister O’Cuív was trying to enter and I’d agree with that. The Minister made many comments to students, including calling them ‘babies’. This really did change the atmosphere. A lot of students seemed to become even more intent on blocking the Minister’s access at this point and this intent combined with the tension from the Minister himself did lead to a feeling of aggression. It’s very disappointing that there was no Garda presence for the Minister’s arrival, especially since it was known that there was a protest going on. As it is the NUI Galway security did a good job of keeping things relatively calm up until the Minister himself manhandled a student. It was the Minister who was the only person present to physically engage with anyone else, and that is really quite disgraceful.”

In response to the differing responses from Minister O’Cuiv’s office as to what happened during last night’s incident and asked for a comment on the incident as a whole, the SU President responded that; “Some students chose to block the entrance for the Minister, which they as students and citizens were entitled to do, while some others chose to stand back at this point. Both actions are perfectly acceptable. The “trouble” started when a government Minister chose to ignore the NUI Galway security and personally engage in pushing back and grabbing at students. His later justifications based on protecting his secretary really don’t make sense. She was never threatened, and indeed was never pushed, hit or kicked and it is embarrassing to the see the stories being spun by the Minister’s office. Throughout the day [Wednesday 10th] the story seemed to grow by itself – on Galway Bay FM the Minister claimed both he and his secretary felt threatened, and were fearful of being crushed. Later in the afternoon spokespeople for the Minister were talking about her being kicked and pushed. This was a complete lie. As far as I could see the moment the Minister laid his hands on a student was when things all went wrong. It was really stunning to see, and it is also very disheartening to see the lies now being pushed by the Fianna Fail machine in response to the clear evidence of the photographs and witness accounts.”

More photographs of the incident can be seen in the Sin Gallery here:
http://www.sin.nuigalway.ie/gallery2/v/December+08/Fees+protest/

The protest was called by the NUI Galway Students’ Union and was assisted by Free Education for Everyone (FEE). Free Education for Everyone is a campaigning group of students set up to fight the re-introduction of fees and for genuinely free education for all. FEE groups exist in UCD, Trinity, Maynooth, UCC, UL and NUIG. FEE activists have organised protests, occupations and blockades across the country over the past number of months.

FEE believes that university campuses should be a no-go-area for ministers like O Cuiv and O’Keefe. FEE is open to everyone that stands for truly free education and can be contacted at stopfees@gmail.com or on 0861986955.

Students wielding "big sticks"

The minister and his secretary "squashed up against the wall" with students kicking them...apparently

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From Breakingnews.ie

A Government minister today insisted he was right to restrain a protesting student after a noisy demonstration over education cutbacks turned nasty.

Minister for Community, Rural, and Gaeltacht Affairs Eamon O Cuiv stepped in and grabbed a protester after he and his secretary were confronted by a 50-strong crowd.

Mr O Cuiv held one of the students by the arms after his party was pushed against a wall as they entered the Quadrangle of NUI Galway last night.

“There was a bunch of students who wouldn’t let the minister in so the university security brought them up to another door,” a spokeswoman for the Mr O Cuiv said.

“They were going up there when they were stormed by about 50 students.”

The spokeswoman claimed the threatening crowd, who were protesting over Budget education cutbacks, crushed Mr O Cuiv’s secretary against a wall and kicked her.

“The secretary was squashed up against the wall with students kicking her and one of them waving a big stick at her,” the spokeswoman said.

Mr O Cuiv was at NUI Galway for the official launch of a new €50m engineering building at the university by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe.

One of the protestors, who claimed he did not see the the secretary, suggested the demonstration only turned sour when Mr O Cuiv stepped in.

It is the second protest targeting Mr O Cuiv in the last week after 30 students stormed and occupied his constituency office for more than an hour last Thursday.

Mr O Cuiv was not there at the time but a number of female staff members were at work at the time. The secretary, who is aged in her 20s, said some of those protestors were at last night’s event.

It is understood a taxi driver who brought Mr O Cuiv and his secretary to NUI Galway alerted gardaí.

The protest was organised in collaboration between the NUI Galway Students’ Union, and the group FEE (Free Education for Everyone), which was recently set-up in the University.

It was supported by NUIG Labour Youth, Ogra Sinn Féin, Young Greens, Ogra Fianna Fáil and Young Fine Gael.

Young Greens spokesman Breandan MacGabhann claimed it was a peaceful protest.

“We were blocking the ministers from gaining entrance to the building, with the intended message if they are going to block people from getting a quality education with the budget cutbacks, then we will block their entrance to the college,” Mr MacGabhann said.

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Audio interview with the minister is available from RTÉs Morning Ireland