Gardaí mix-up leads to wrong group being questioned

Members of People Before Profit (PBP) were approached by “four plain clothes guards” at the end of their regular Tallaght branch meeting.

Cllr Emma Hendrick, PBP councillor for South Tallaght, said members were asked for their names and addresses on the basis that they were “suspected members of an unlawful organisation”.

She added: “Last week council members of SDCC were calling for more policing in the community. I seriously doubt this is what they meant.”

However, it subsequently emerged that PBP members were meeting in the same venue as Saoradh, a small political party which has previously faced media allegations of links to dissident republican paramilitaries.

In a statement, Saoradh said it anticipated that its members would be questioned following the inaugural AGM of its South Dublin branch. However, gardaí had left by the time the Saoradh meeting ended.

The party said: “In their over-eagerness to harass our party members, the Garda Special Branch seem to have mistaken PBP members leaving the community centre as members of Saoradh which then led to this latest episode of state harassment against political activism.

“Saoradh welcomes the condemnation from PBP of this blatant state harassment of political activists and we hope they will also condemn the continuing harassment Irish Republicans receive on an ongoing basis in both the twenty-six and six county statelets.”