DCC Censors Farmer's Palestinian Flag At Market

A local Dublin farmer has become the latest boundary post in a wider debate about free speech, Palestine and the regulation of public space. There was a protest yesterday in Bushy Park’s farmers market in support of him, and there is a petition circulating which claims that Dublin City Council instructed “Farmer Jim” identified as Jim Scully, from the Rush area of County Dublin (his particulars may be updated after publication as he was reached out to for comment but has not yet responded although he has confirmed that he will in due course) to stop displaying a Palestinian flag at his fruit and vegetable stall at the Bushy Park Saturday Market. 

His van sign reportedly reads “Farmers for Palestine, stop the genocide,” (Farmers4Palestine Ireland Instagram can be found here for other interested farmers) and he hangs a Palestinian flag at his stall. The petition calls this peaceful political expression and working-class solidarity with an oppressed people. It demands that DCC rescind any directive, apologise to Scully, and affirm the right of all Dublin citizens to peaceful political expression on public property. (Link to sign the petition can be found here)

Based on available public information, (as DCC has not responded to invitation to comment at all) the directive appears to stem from DCC’s parks policy rather than a by-law aimed specifically at Scully, however the bylaw itself, as well as it’s application to this case needs to be looked at.

 A February 2024 Dublin City Council parks management document, authored by the Head of Parks, Biodiversity and Landscape Services, (Leslie/Les Moore) states that city parks are managed as places of “refuge, rest and relaxation” and that events organised to protest against or in favour of national or geo-political events will not be permitted. Although this was opposed by DCC councillors and has been an ongoing debacle. 

That policy, if applied to a trader’s stall, raises a question: does a vendor’s personal flag count as a political “event,” or is it individual expression? At the very least it seems heavy handed, at worst it could signal some kind of selective enforcement and an overall flexibility of the rule. 

The market itself is operated under a concession agreement awarded by DCC. Public records show the Bushy Park Saturday Market is run by Dublin Market Events, trading as Talshaw Limited, a small company led by event manager Anne Talbot. Talshaw was the awarded supplier for the 2019 DCC tender to operate the market. The operator is responsible for managing traders and complying with DCC conditions, meaning any instruction to Scully may have come through the market operator, the Parks Department, or both. We have reached out to DCC to find out if this was the result of a complaint but as stated earlier they have not commented yet. 

The key figures are Leslie Moore, Head of Parks, Biodiversity and Landscape Services, who authored the 2024 policy, and Anne Talbot, whose company runs the market. No evidence of a formal, declared conflict of interest has been found for either. However, structural and perceptual questions remain. Moore’s department both sets and enforces park policy, creating an appearance of institutional bias, as since 2024 many political events have been hosted in DCC parks including anti immigration rallies. Talbot, meanwhile, has held a voluntary community representative role on a Sculpture Dublin selection panel for Bushy Park while her company holds a commercial contract to operate a market in the same park. That overlap is not proof of wrongdoing, but it is a perceptual conflict worth noting. It is also worth noting that as it stands this is a guideline/draft policy and it appears it may not have been fully ratified. 

The petition’s demands are clear: rescind the directive, apologise, and affirm free expression. DCC has not issued a public statement on this specific case in available records. Without that, the facts remain contested. What is clear is that the case tests the boundary between a council’s desire for neutral public parks, the commercial rules of a public market, and an individual’s right to political speech. It also lands in a politically charged context: DCC has previously debated flying the Palestinian flag over City Hall. It is also worth noting, how this interpretation of the regulation arose, a man displaying a sign on a stall can hardly be considered a political event by any stretch and if the regulation is going to be applied this way, will it bar things like commemorations in other parks? Will it bar people with buttons on their clothing as well as signs on their vehicles? These are questions DCC and Talshaw LTD must investigate and answer. 

For now, the Farmer Jim case is a local dispute with national implications. It brings the question of whether solidarity with Palestine can be silenced in a Dublin park or in public spaces as individual expression and who gets to decide such. 

Contact details could not be found for Talshaw LTD beyond that their registered office being located at 51 Lavarna Grove, Terenure, Dublin, however interested campaigners can contact Dublin City Council Parks, Biodiversity and Landscape Services Division by phone at 01 222 5278 or by email at parks@dublincity.ie