It was a day of many emotions and opinions outside the GPO.
As word spread that anti-Islam group PEGIDA intended to hold a recruitment rally on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, a counter-demonstration was planned.
The numbers of the counter-protest far outweighed those of PEGIDA themselves, and the anti-Islamic group were nowhere to be seen. There was several hundred anti-PEDIGA protesters beneath the Spire between 1pm and 6pm.
JOE caught up with some of the counter-protesters including a well-respected imam who addressed the crowd, a Trinidadian woman offering free hugs and the chairman of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity campaign.
Their messages to PEGIDA ranged from a simple “Go home” to peace offerings. The woman below, for example, believed that the angry people of PEGIDA simply needed to be shown some love.
One thing is clear, however, PEGIDA were roundly outnumbered and outshouted on the streets of Dublin today, and it served to emphasise the message that their bigotry is unwelcome on the streets of Ireland.
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