Ireland: anti-containment celebrates St. Patrick's Day
The streets of Dublin deserted for St. Patrick's Day, the national day, March 17, 2021. © AFP - PAUL FAITH
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The Irish had to spend their second straight national holiday, St. Patrick's Day, confined.
But not all of them accept confinement.
In a country that does not have a culture of demonstration, and for the second time in less than a month, part of the population has chosen to meet - which is illegal at the moment - to protest against the restrictions .
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With our correspondent in Dublin,
Emeline Vin
Music and soap bubbles: the good-natured atmosphere contrasts with the signs that equate vaccines with genocides.
“
It's dangerous for some people, for sure,”
says Kirsten, who has brought her two children.
But young, healthy people should not be locked up.
My children are not allowed to go play with their friends.
They get depressed.
Mental health is becoming a real problem
”.
Two weeks ago police and protesters clashed in a similar demonstration.
Damian Soul was there but this gathering is different.
For him, “
St. Patrick's Day is a day of national communion, of strength, of unity.
That we are forbidden to celebrate it is like stealing Christmas from the kids
”.
Many wear the colors of Ireland.
None of the 200 demonstrators wears a mask.
The small crowd roars with joy at the arrival of Dolores Cahill, professor of medicine and figure of opponents of confinement.
“
Healthy carriers do not exist!
she asserts.
They are healthy people!
The police are not allowed to ask you where you are going.
Teachers are not allowed to force your children to put on a mask.
Our children will never reach their intellectual potential because their brains are deprived of oxygen
!
"
► To read also: Ireland: a virtual Saint-Patrick, for lack of better
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