SFY protest against harassment
Sinn Féin Youth members in Dublin protested at what they termed
``renewed efforts by the Gardaí Special Branch to harass and
intimidate'' them.
The protest was held outside the Special Branch headquarters in
Dublin's Harcourt Street. Dublin SFY Co-ordinator Matt Carthy
said, ``Last Friday alone 13 members of SFY along with five
international guests were stopped and questioned by a known
Special Branch Garda and his colleagues, who refused to disclose
their names.''
SFY members held posters at the picket bearing the names of some
offending Gardaí. One Garda, posted at the gate of the station,
physically assaulted a SFY member, quite unashamedly, in full
view of passers by. The young man, who had not commited an
offence, displayed remarkable patience and dignity considering
the extent of the assaults.
Carthy, who also said that one Special Branch Garda had initiated
a campaign of intimidation by driving past various members' homes
while ensuring ``that the political activists knew that it was
them he was surveying'', commended the resolve of SFY members in
the face of this ``pathetic behaviour'' and concluded that ``Sinn
Féin Youth refuse to allow this situation to continue. We will
not allow the Gardaí or anyone else to hamper the work we have
undertaken.'' Efforts to intimidate, he said ``are in vain''.
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