Dublin Says No: Thousands March Against EU War Summit As Gardaí Arrest Protestors

Dublin became a fortress today for the sake of  European militarism, as the European Political Community (EPC) summit convened at the Convention Centre, bringing nearly 50 heads of state to the capital to discuss the war in Ukraine and Europe’s deepening military integration. But outside the cordons, the people made themselves heard: Thousands of ordinary people took to the streets to reject the EU’s complicity in genocide and its assault on Irish neutrality. The state’s response was predictable: A massive policing operation and arrests of protesters.‌

The Summit: A Gathering of War Criminals

The EPC summit, held as part of Ireland’s EU Council presidency, was a gathering of leaders with blood on their hands and whose agenda is the further militarisation of Europe. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the summit, calling for Europe to be a “regular” part of peace talks, talks that exclude the voices of ordinary people and serve only the interests of imperialist powers.‌

More tellingly, US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Dublin to meet Zelenskyy, a detail that exposes the fiction of European “strategic autonomy”. The EU is not an independent actor for peace; it is a junior partner in a US-led war machine that fuels conflicts from Gaza to Ukraine. This is another tell on the dark path our current government is leading us down and what the erosion of our neutrality is in aid of. 

The Protests

The day began with a protest by Mothers Against Genocide at Westmoreland Street, where around 60 people, mostly women, gathered oppose the slaughter in Gaza. They carried Palestinian flags and Irish tricolours. Their message could not be clearer or simpler: the EU is complicit in genocide. For standing with them, two comrades from Anti Imperialist Action were arrested by Gardaí under the Public Order Act.‌

By evening, the resistance had grown into a mass march. Organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement in collaboration with the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, thousands assembled at the Spire on O’Connell Street before marching toward the National Gallery, where EU leaders were attending a formal dinner. The crowd chanted “blood on your hands” at the EU leaders and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.‌

The demands were clear: EU sanctions on Israel, an end to trade with Israeli settlements, and the defence of Irish neutrality against the EU’s drive to militarise. Speakers condemned the government’s plans to reform the Triple Lock, a mechanism that protects Irish neutrality, and denounced the presence of US envoys Witkoff and Kushner, who protesters labelled “war criminals”.‌ Richard Boyd Barrett addressed the crowd handing in the petition demanding the suspension of the EU/Israel trade agreement. He stated in his address that “this is what this petition is about, it is about who enables the genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people, [which] are ongoing, they continue, in spite of claims of ceasefire, and have gone on for decades since 1948” 

The State’s Response

The Gardaí mounted the largest security operation in the history of the state, deploying 15,000 officers to protect the summit. The message from the Commissioner was one of “zero tolerance” for protests that disrupted the event, in direct contravention of our civil liberties.‌

This was not neutral. It was the strong arm of the state protecting the architects of war from the people. Gardaí blocked protesters from approaching the Convention Centre and the National Gallery, creating physical barriers to keep the demonstration away from the leaders. The two arrests at the Mothers Against Genocide protest were a warning: the state will criminalise those who speak out against genocide.‌

The Voices of the Movement

The people on the streets today were not “disruptors” regardless of how they are painted in the mainstream media; they were workers, students, mothers, and pensioners who understand that the EU’s wars abroad and its assault on neutrality at home are two sides of the same coin.

One of our Journalists interviewed a person who came all the way from France where he has lived for 40 years representing the CGT, Mick Flynn. He told us that he came over to resist the EU leadership who were “up to their necks in genocide” he also, while laying out the situation in France where the public sector is being stripped for militarism, and has said of a possible general strike on the 17th of November in France. He told us “Irish people, Irish working class people, take a leaf out of the French working class book! Join us in our struggle against the fascists, against the zionists, against genocide, and to defend our public services!”

One woman who travelled from Belfast to attend the Mothers Against Genocide protest said she came “because every day she watches small babies being killed in Palestine”. This is the reality that the summit’s attendees with their dinners at the National Gallery and their discussions of “peace talks” refuse to aknowlege.‌

The Fight Continues

Yesterday was a powerful display of resistance. But one march does not stop a war machine. The EPC summit will end, the leaders will fly home, and the bombs will continue to fall on Gaza. The struggle against Irish complicity in genocide, and against the EU’s militarisation, must continue.