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The following day the turn out was slightly smaller & the initial mood more subdued. Many school kids (from various schools) and parents I’ve spoken to stated that they were not allowed out of school by staff even when some had permission notes from their parents. After speeches by the trade unions the crowd was asked to disperse by someone from SIPTU but the majority of people were having none of it.

An anti-war carnival continued on the pavement outside City Hall, & it was only a matter of time before this spilt onto the streets. Around 500/600 people blocked the road. The PSNI quickly pointed out that this was an illegal protest to which one activist replied that it was an illegal war. Once again there was a tremendous feeling of people power & civil disobedience seemed the order of the day. That was until once again members of socialist parties started to ‘issue commands’ for people to leave the streets, as ‘we’d made our point’. Socialist Youth began taking placards back from school kids not wanting to be associated with this act of civil disobedience. 

After about 20 minutes the streets had been cleared by a combination of socialists & police. The protest continued on the footpath with the police standing in line to make sure no one went back on the road.

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