Today 8th October was the one year anniversary of Occupy Dame Street setting up camp outside the Central Bank in Dublin.
On Saturday there was a (very small) march, followed by workshops and an open-mike assembly at the plaza, then music which I couldn't stick around for. Yesterday there were more workshops and music which I didn't go to.
Tonight I went in to a small general assembly.
It was good to see some familiar faces, people whom I have a lot of affection for from the times we had together from October last year until March when the camp was evicted. And times we've had since, different projects people are working on.
It was nice to gather there on a fairly mild October evening reminiscent of the freakishly mild weather that was the first week of Occupy Dame Street in 2011.
It seems a long time ago, and a different world. A world that perhaps has gotten worse, at least in terms of many of the issues we were seeking to highlight and protest and provide alternatives to.
So here we are. It seemed sad tonight, though worthwhile to mark this time. On to bigger and better things, let's hope.
Occupy Galway is gone. It was evicted by Gardai at the ungodly hour of 4.30a.m. yesterday morning. The last Occupy camp in Ireland is gone. I knew this yesterday, but I didn't know what to say about it, so I said nothing. Which is not the right response. And is exactly the response those who rule the current version of this country and the current version of this world want most of us to have.
I still don't know what to say. It was good Occupy maintained its presence and made it felt for so long, in so many parts of Ireland, and worldwide. It continues in the projects, the campaigns, the friendships, the energy and determination that grew out of Occupy for hundreds if not thousands of people here, and around the world. In the lessons learned, the things not to do, the things to do better, the things to replicate. The things we got away with, against the odds, the voices that wouldn't be quiet, the activists who wouldn't obey when they were told there was no other way.
I'm sad Occupy Galway is gone. It seemed well-organised, to be doing some interesting things, to have good relationships with the Council and police and most importantly with the people of the city. But now because a major international event will shortly be taking place in the city, the Council and Gardai moved in to forcibly evict the camp, just as they did in Dublin in advance of international attention turning towards it for St. Patrick's Day.
The world wonders why Ireland does not not protest enough, as further iniquities and inequities are heaped upon us almost daily, but signs of dissent are simply evicted, erased, and the pretence continues that we all acquiesce. We haven't forgotten, we won't forget, we don't consent, and though the camps may be gone, we are still here.
The camp at Occupy Dame Street is gone. It feels a little sad and strange and slightly circular that this phase has ended five months to the day since it began. A tent was daringly thrown up during the first General Assembly on 8th October 2011, and this morning at around 3.30a.m. on Wednesday 8th March 2012, over 100 police descended on the campsite, broke it apart and evicted the 12-15 residents staying there. The 12 or so wooden shacks, the large wooden kitchen, the pallet fence, the donated equipment, tools, clothes, books and food are all gone, as if they were never there.
I happened to be at the camp a lot last night. With a co-facilitator I ran a facilitation training workshop that had been planned for a a couple of weeks, it was very well attended and everyone there seemed interested and to get quite a bit out of it. Two good hours of learning and exchange of ideas, and definite interest from participants in another workshop, soon. It was good to feel I was passing on some skills, the workshop was something I'd wanted to do for the last few months and which helped me feel better about my lower level of involvement in Occupy, recently and, in theory, going forward. It also seemed to help normalise things a little at the camp, highlighting again the necessity of organising events, talks and training as part of the occupation - there is an appetite for these activities and they bring in new people.
After the workshop and some feedback and reflection I dropped in and out of the Active Participants Meeting (APM). It focussed first on discussions with the producer of a BBC3 documentary whose presenter was going to come and spend a couple of days living and participating in the life of the camp. This has been approved at a previous APM. People seemed happy enough with the producer's answers to various questions and after she left the meeting moved on to discussing, at fairly typical length, a proposal to have music and entertainment at the camp during St. Patrick's Day.
Much of the previous week or more at the camp had been taken up with a letter from the Gardai saying that they wanted the camp dismantled for Paddy's Day, and the camp's response to this. Camp representatives had met with the police and offered to try and meet their safety concerns, including shrinking and consolidating the camp and erecting high crowd-control barriers for the duration of the St. Patrick's Day parade, which passes right by the camp. However the police had not seemed satisfied with this, or even willing to discuss or negotiate with the camp about it. The letter had requested a response by Friday 3rd March, which the camp ultimately agreed only on Sunday 5th March. But the response had been made in writing as requested, reiterating the people's right to protest, willingness to cooperate with any safety issues from the Gardai or parade organisers, and openness to further discussion. It also should be noted that the camp had been working continuously with the city's fire marshals over the previous months, and particularly recently, and had taken various actions, including separating the sleeping shacks to their safety specifications of more than 2 metres apart, which had necessitated an expansion of that area of the camp. The fire marshals had stated that they were the only authority in terms of fire safety for the camp, and not the police. Nothing more had been heard from the police after their letter, meetings held with them and the camp's written response.
As last night's APM began, talking about music and other light topics for the upcomimg festival, I assumed that the camp must have already addressed in the week's earlier meetings serious issues such as a coordination plan in the event of an eviction attempt. As the meeting progressed however, I began to wonder if this planning had in fact taken place. I mentioned communications, security and the importance of preserving vital information about the history and participants in the movement, contained in log books on site. A couple of other people brought up related issues, and it appeared that these hadn't been agreed. After some time a proposal was accepted for fairly quiet, family friendly and environmentally themed music and entertainment just for the morning of Paddy's Day, before the parade. An eviction plan had not been discussed, but it was thought at this stage that any move by Gardai would follow formal informing of the camp, and wouldn't happen until the following week. I was concerned at the apparent lack of preparation for a serious threat to the camp's existence, but could do no more myself at that stage to help the camp make the plans it needed to come up with.
As I left around 9.30p.m. I snapped a few photos of the camp as it was then, kitchen, fire-compliant shacks and all.
Little did I know it would all be gone six hours later.
Alas it seems there was no communications plan and it was a call from a friend that alerted me around 7a.m. this morning that the eviction had already happened. Meeting people shaken and sad at the barren site in the early morning, the night had been traumatic. It certainly sounded like the police approach had been as one person put it 'disproportionate and unnecessary'. Without warning at around 3.30 a.m. over 100 Gardai had surrounded and begun to break apart the camp. Many were in SWAT gear, clad in padded black. Most residents were asleep in their shacks and were woken by banging and, for some people, by metal hooks smashing through their shacks while they were still in them. No-one was given any warning or caution, and only a few people received any written form about what was happening. Residents were dragged out of their shacks in some cases by the head or legs, and no-one was allowed to retrieve personal belongings, including phones, laptops and even clothes, leaving some people shivering in tshirts in very cold temperatures. While the protestors remained peaceful, the police made the process needlessly upsetting, disrespectful and disorderly, and certainly dangerous, verging on the brutal and potentially illegal.
The Gardai had cordoned off both ends of Dame Street and the other entrances to the site, and the only arrest was made when someone associated with ODS walked through the cordon from outside to get back to the camp. This person was later released with a caution. Residents were forced to move away from the camp site, and prevented from returning to it. Attempts by some residents to peacefully resist by sitting down were met with force by the police. Again, residents were not allowed to gather up any personal belongings, even medication.
In two hours everything on the site had been broken apart by police assisted by corporation workers, and large digger/crane attachments had scooped the broken wood and mixture of personal and collective belongings into trucks. While personal belongings were at first carefully sorted by corporation workers, including artworks such as murals, some of these later got dumped into trucks together with broken construction materials. While the communication hadn't reached many camp supporters during this night raid, video footage on the news and reports in the papers indicated that the media had been there pretty promptly.
When I arrived the empty, grey plaza was a shock. The camp which had endured two floods, the drunken crowds of Halloween and New Year's Eve, the cold weather, the internecine fighting, the descents into chaos and the repeated attempts at reinvigoration, had disappeared.
There were very few people around, fewer than 15, which at times during the morning dropped to three or four, as dazed residents took breaks to recuperate in nearby restaurants or bars, including the ever-supportive Sweeney's. While a couple of local businesses have criticised Occupy Dame Street, Sweeney's and others have remained steadfastly supportive and glad of the extra business brought in by campers and supporters.
There was quite a lot of media attention, with interviewers and film crews occasionally, as in the early days, outnumbering the number of activists available or willing to talk to them.
More and more people began to arrive and throughout the day information was gradually put out via text and internet. There were between two and four Gardai present throughout the day, mainly quite easygoing. The police seemed allergic to banners and signs being posted or hung on the fences of the Central Bank, and confiscated any that anyone tried to attach. But we still managed to capture the flavour of more carefree days, in the company of Christy Moore's bodhran:
The initial statement that had been on display since October had been torn down.
At one point a few people threw up a tent.
This was immediately met with a harsh police reaction and the tent roughly removed, as visible in this video:
Early on it was decided that a General Assembly would be held at 6p.m. The scene was reminiscent of day one.
By the appointed hour at least 150 people had gathered on the plaza.
It was great to see so many people there, including many familiar faces from earlier days of the occupation. At the start of the General Assembly a well-worded statement was read out.
The G.A. alas was not well structured and after the assembly generally became a difficult-to-hear open mike. There was a lot of energy and a supportive crowd, but little attempt was made to have a discussion on what to do next.
Suddenly a proposal was made to go en masse down to Pearse Street Garda station to reclaim the personal belongings removed that morning. In a matter of seconds this 'proposal' was suggested, a call for consensus made and with everyone too taken by surprise or simply intimidated by the developing mob mentality the proposal was accepted. The first time I've been strongly tempted to use the block but I too felt unable to speak up in that moment, and it probably would have made no difference. In moments the entire crowd of over 100 people at this stage swept off down the street. We worked for five months to continuously maintain a symbolic presence in this space and in one minute it had been abandoned unthinkingly, by the largest group we'd been able to gather there in a long time. Myself and fewer than ten others did not join the mob and stayed in the plaza to continue the occupation. As we stood almost alone on the grey cobbles below the hulking, untouched Central Bank, while the 'movement' moved away down the street shouting violently about a fool's errand, I felt Occupy Dame Street end for me. Five months, many amazing people, struggles, successes, much learned, much lost, much more to do, but tonight this phase at least of this unexpected and unique adventure came to a close.
We stayed there, dwindling further in numbers. One activist had the great idea to use chalk to decorate the space and we created a large circle on the ground, proclaiming as ever 'We Are The 99%'.
One of the initial organisers appeared, five week old baby in tow, a baby that had been a pregnant bump throughout many of the early months of Occupy. Occubaby!
Meanwhile there were reports of altercations with the Gardai on Pearse Street, and photos came back of dozens of police with linked arms facing down and shoving protestors in the street. I didn't want to leave, it seemed wrong to simply wander away and abandon the plaza to its fate.
Nearly two hours later forty or fifty people returned, gathering around the chalk circle, fairly energised and filled with adrenaline.
A couple of shouted accounts and a plan to have another General Assembly tomorrow at 6p.m. with a bigger, family-centric one on Saturday at 6p.m. At least it was some kind of plan, although where it leaves the movement now I've no idea. Things quickly wound down.
Someone mentioned that Occupy Cork and Galway had been served with eviction notices. Some people planned to stay the night. The odd person came by with a donation of food or clothing. Amazingly someone had salvaged the original Occupy Dame Street Ireland sign that had graced so many photos in the first few days, and we took 'family' photos of all of us with it. The people here were what made this something worth pursuing, and the movement does continue in some way in all of us. The full moon shone down, by the clock we'd checked so often standing on the plaza in all weathers, at every time of the day and night.
With so many of the initial occupiers around, it felt almost like that first warm, hopeful evening in October. But it's much colder now and five months is enough history to hang heavy in the air. There was confusion, hope, infighting, friendship, politics, economics, the desire for a better world, and no real idea what to do. In other words, there was Occupy Dame Street. Goodbye.
The Carnival of Resistance began today in Dublin city centre to protest 1.25 billion Euro being "given" this week by the Irish people to Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society senior unsecured bondholders. This payment is just part of an astonishing 47.9 billion Euro that is scheduled to be paid over 20 years to cover the debts of these two now-defunct institutions, costs that are being unfairly socialised onto the Irish people, who did not incur or benefit from these debts, while the payment costs are causing immediate and unnecessary economic suffering across the country.
The following scheduled payment is 3.1 billion Euro on the 31st March, which is almost exactly equivalent to the Irish Government's recent budget cuts in health, social protection and overseas development assistance combined with the 'savings' in education. Or to put it another way, the money about to be handed to these bondholders, who we are under no obligation to pay and who are not included in the IMF/ECB bailout deal, could alternatively be used to run Ireland's primary school system for a year. The Carnival of Resistance aims to highlight and object to these payments, and the longer-term management of these debts.
The three day festival of music, talks and art will continue until Wednesday 25th January at the old Anglo Irish Bank building, on Stephen's Green in Dublin, now one of the offices of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which was formed to wind up Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide. The payment is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 25th. The Carnival is organised by a diverse group of individuals and is supported by various groups, such as Occupy Dame Street and the Not Our Debt campaign. The Carnival is designed particularly to be family-friendly and all are welcome to attend.
There were live performances today by The Velvetones and Twin Headed Wolf, among others, and upcoming acts include The Barley Mob, members of Kila, the McVeigh Sisters, Jupiter and the Infinite, Eritrea and the Fibbs.
Occupy University will be hosting a series of lectures. On Tuesday at 1.30p.m. Mick O'Reilly will speak, and Conor McCabe will talk at 5.30p.m. Wednesday will feature Michael Taft at 1.30p.m., Andy Storey at 4p.m. and Siobhan O'Donoghue at 5.30p.m.
In related news, there will be a public meeting of the Anglo: Not Our Debt campaign tomorrow Tuesday 24th January in the Teachers' Club, Parnell Square in Dublin, at 7pm.
Street artist Canvaz did the above piece on Abbey Street, near Capel Street, to add his voice to the opposition to these unfair debts. It reads "Give a man an education and he will build a new world but give a man and loan and you can own that man forever. Not our debt."
Today is a celebration of 100 days of continuous occupation by Occupy Dame Street of the plaza in front of the Central Bank of Ireland in Dublin city centre. A lot has happened in these 100 days, much of which I am not going to try to review here, not least because I want to get back to the camp to support it and join the celebrations, and the reinvigoration of camp organisation and working groups that is planned today to help the protest, and process, move forward in 2012.
Good to remember how it all began on a sunny 8th October:
It has been a pretty amazing and often awful 100 days. It is impressive that the camp has managed to last over three months, and it's now one of the longest running Occupations anywhere in the world, following the forced evictions of many Occupies in the US. At the same time, along with many others, I have been reflecting on what it is or isn't achieving, and trying to figure out what level of involvement I'd like to have with it. That process is still ongoing so we'll see how it pans out in the next few weeks.
I took a break from writing about Occupy, though not from being at the protest itself, back in November, and while still being there quite frequently I tried to get back to making some progress in the rest of my so-called life. A great deal has happened there meanwhile. Re-reading my last post of 21st November 2011, we were waiting to see if a court order would be taken against Occupy Dame Street the following morning. That didn't happen, and indeed the concern and public support shown during that Monday helped the camp to consolidate and get more energised. It also brought into focus why people were there and what they would or would not be willing to risk to continue the protest.
At that time after three general assemblies on the topic and much internal discussion ODS had decided not to officially support the Dublin Council of Trade Unions anti-austerity march on 26th November. A lot of people were supportive of it and attended the march in a personal capacity. I felt it would be important in light of the decision not to formally link with DCTU that Occupy Dame Street take stock and come up with its next phase, the topics and areas of focus and alliances that it would pursue next, that it overcome the divisiveness of the issue and move forward in a way that a lot of people could get behind. That didn't really happen, though we did forge good links, for example participating in the wonderful Spectacle of Defiance and Hope on 3rd December.
Now at the start of 2012 ODS is taking stock in order to remain relevant. My gut feeling is that it now needs to become more of a mass movement than a symbolic protest, it always aimed to provide a platform for the 99% to come up with and start implementing their own solutions, rather than dictating and demanding allegiance to a rigid set of unachievable policies, and being that platform for the majority is something unique and very valuable. Hopefully we can find a way to expand, join with others and start facilitating those alternatives to happen.
There's a lot more to say and a much overdue review now that the camp is more than double the age it was when I last wrote. But that will have to wait for another day and ever-elusive sufficient time. Instead, a moment to mark that Occupy Dame Street is still here. This is what it looked like on day one hundred:
For now, to celebrate 100 days, I've posted all my photos from the last three weeks of ODS, including photos of Liam O Maonlai and other musicians playing at ODS on Xmas Eve, mince pies and Santa on Xmas Day, and the original statement we stuck up in October, still in situ on New Year's Day 2012. Those and 500+ photos and short videos of ODS from the last 3 months can be seen here. Here's to the next 100 days, and finding a way forward for us all.
UPDATE: changed the photo above from one during the week to one on day 100.
It appears that tomorrow morning the Central Bank of Ireland will seek a Court Order against Occupy Dame Street. What exactly this will be for is not yet clear, whether it is to clear the site completely, remove the newly built kitchen or for some other purpose isn't yet known but will presumably become clear at some time tomorrow. People are worried about eviction, and more people are definitely needed on site - both to stay and to simply work on maintaining the space and taking the movement forward. My own feeling is that not much actually will happen tomorrow, but that remains to be seen when the details are brought out in court tomorrow. Hopefully people can provide support, and ensure that any response remains non-violent and peaceful, true to the principles of the movement.
I was away from the camp for the week, and dropped in briefly only a couple of times. On Monday things seemed somewhat strained in advance of the decision-making General Assembly that evening on whether to join with the Dublin Council of Trade Unions march on 26th November. After giving some intensive, high-speed facilitation training to the only person who was willing and available to facilitate the GA, I had to leave, but apparently the marathon three hour Assembly went relatively respectfully and managed to reach some decision. Ultimately the block was exercised by around 8 people and the final decision was for people to attend the march in personal capacities and that people were welcome to come to Occupied Dame Street afterwards, without banners. People seemed engaged but more worrying earlier in the day was the sense of people being tired and wondering where the movement was headed overall.
I dropped by for a few minutes on Thursday, in time to see the new kitchen under construction.
This had been contentious, with Central Bank employees calling in almost immediately to object and say that it should not go ahead. It's a large wooden structure, so who knows how that is being construed. From Thursday the wait was on to see what would happen.
I also dropped by briefly on Friday and caught Fintan O'Toole speaking - eloquently and inspiringly as usual, if somewhat depressingly seeing as things are always revealed by him as being just that bit worse than you thought/hoped. Have extensive video, still getting it processed and organised, but will be up on Occupy University eventually.
This evening, having seen the news of the court order suddenly appear online, I went down to talk to people and see what was really happening. Essentially the answer is head to court tomorrow, see what's actually being ordered, and then go from there. Specific individuals will be in court to record what's being said, and everyone else is encouraged to come to either the camp or the Four Courts at 9.30a.m. tomorrow to show their support outside. It seems unlikely any further move on foot of what's discussed at court will be made tomorrow, but depending on what the order is, more may happen in the coming days.
Meanwhile major structural changes had taken place at camp, with the tents all moved to one side, the kitchen finished and open space with a pallet fence all around it at the front of camp.
The kitchen had been completed:
And the first shack had been built!
It was somehow discombobulating that some of the earliest tents had moved, making the place feel radically different in just a couple of days.
I just hope people take this opportunity to discuss carefully what they are and are not willing to do. Also if it comes to a direct resistance situation, that people are clear on what non-violent resistance is, in keeping with the movement's principles. Now is a time when we need to be clear on what we are doing this for, what this movement is about, and how we are prepared to act. For me, Occupy Dame Street is about saying we as citizens want to change the political, economic and social system in this country and that we're willing to take a stand and occupy public space to start making that a reality. I want a society and a country that is fair, equal, participatory, transparent, honest and respectful of everyone, one that does not put the demands of the few, in this case the bankers, big businesses and politicians, ahead of the many, the citizens of Ireland and people of the world.
Wonderful traditional fiddle playing at Occupy Dame Street tonight, using a fiddle that was very amazingly sent over by Occupy Pittsburgh. There were some adventures for a camp member collecting this fiddle from customs yesterday and then a livestreamed 'fiddle off' was held tonight, with fiddleplayers over in Pittsburgh playing away and ours being joined by other traditional musicians on the street.
The videos cannot capture in any way the quality of the music and skill demonstrated for over an hour and a half.
Originally we'd hoped to project the Occupy Pittsburgh livestream here simultaneously, but problems with the generator since yesterday and lack of power meant we could not get the projectors working in the end. Internet hitches delayed the start of the concert but didn't dampen anyone's spirits on an unseasonably mild evening. Meanwhile people from Florida and even further afield were tuning in and commenting on the livestream.
Plus someone at Occupy Pittsburgh tweeted "Occupy Dame Street is OWNING us in this fiddle-off." Irish pride intact.
We got in some Irish dancing (as I tried to recall my primary school and Gaeltacht experiences...ar ais do tri...backwards and forwards...now spin around...hmm). Ungainly, fun and a great evening.
In this pic you can just about see the photo of Occupy Pittsburgh with the fiddle before they sent it from the US, just behind the shoulder of the fiddler on the right, who is playing the Pittsburgh fiddle in Dublin. Demonstrating again that this is a global movement, and we are all connected.
Have been down at the camp most days this week while also getting on with some of the rest of my so-called life. Facilitators group is working pretty well, we did some training on Monday night and have more and more people getting involved with facilitating the General Assemblies which is great. I ended up facilitating three General Assemblies this week though as other folks just weren't available, and three is way too many, both in terms of being tiring and a lot of work, and because it's not a good idea for any one person to be in the same position too much. But we have more people involved now for next week at least. We did have a good General Assembly on consensus and decision-making, which both clarified the consensus process and engendered a pretty good discussion – less contentious than I'd anticipated and no-one advocating for abandoning or even majorly altering the current form of the consensus system that we use here at Occupy Dame Street, at least for now. Maybe when we have 3,000 or 10,000 people coming to General Assembly...We can only hope. More discussion will no doubt take place in future.
Lots more happened during the week including the Carnival for 11/11/11, which featured a fleeting visit by Kristen Hersh of Throwing Muses (cue swooning by the over 30s, not myself though, people were shocked I didn't recognise her). Temper-mental Misselayneous and Third World Records were both excellent, some good reggae and rapping there, and Raven delivered some poetry to much acclaim. We also had an open mike with people saying why they're here, which was really positive and quite emotional, ending perfectly with a young boy aged about 9 or 10 saying 'I'm here because I want a better world.'
And later on there was some meditation for 11/11/11 - yes there are some hippies about. And more power to them.
Occupy Cork had also planned to do some meditating from 11-11.30a.m. For 11/11/11 - apparently everyone not directly involved with the meditation thought it was planned for 24 hours, not half an hour, and were concerned at how they'd keep up the oms for that long...
The march took place today with a few hundred people apparently, and a good public forum style not-quite-General-Assembly afterwards.
Apparently Christy Moore is confirmed to play at 2pm on Monday. And there will be a week of facilitated reflection conversations about Occupy Dame Street at 3pm on Tuesday and Wednesday and 8pm on Thursday.
Didn't have time to post my photos during the week and unusually for me I didn't even download them from my camera. Then my camera went missing last night, ironically not while in the dodgy urban locale of Occupy Dame Street but while I was in the quietly salubrious suburbs having dinner with family. Here's hoping it will show up tomorrow, photos intact. If not you'll just have to imagine everything that happened in week 5.
Strolled up to Occupy Cork on Friday and Saturday and wonderful indeed it was. As exchange visitors from Occupy Dame Street we were very impressed. There was much we admired and many ideas we shared from our experiences as well as many more to take back to Dublin from the People's Republic. Lovely location, with actual actual grass and actual soil, the kind you can actually anchor tents into. Those tents were in straight lines and had a startling innovation tied on to each one - a number by which you could identify it.
Then you could check whether it currently had a resident on the handily located tent registry board.
The camp is sited around a war memorial, which they are in negotiations about, as 11/11/11 is the anniversary of Armistice Day from the First World War, and commemorations are planned, as well as that day happening to be a global day of action for the Occupy movement. Twas good to the see the potted plants. There is also a Hiroshima and Nagasaki memorial at the site.
Their camp is still open plan so anyone interested can walk through it, reaching the sturdily constructed large tarpaulined shelter at the back. This shelter was built by folks who knew what they were at and is fairly secure, though I imagine it is more difficult on windier and rainier days than when we visited. It has a large blue Doric-ish column in the middle which can be easily removed when the winds get too high.
The shelter houses the nicely arranged kitchen on one side.
I guiltily felt this kitchen put Dame Street's somewhat to shame, despite the sterling efforts of the food team, but when I returned the next day the Dublin kitchen had been transformed into a model of order and cleanliness - well done folks. Occupy Cork had an array of condiments (including Hershey's syrup!) for the delectation of its residents and visitors, and plenty of tea and coffee on the go. All the comforts of home (i.e. of Occupied Dublin). They have moved to using crockery and metal cutlery, though they are having to get people to take it off site to wash and then return it, so not ideal.
They have recycling and composting happening.
Nearby under the shelter are a noticeboard with lots of newspaper articles and other info, and the library. There are also whiteboards advertising the day's events.
They generally have more in terms of informational signage - something I'd love to see more of at Occupy Dame Street, it helps people to share knowledge and to engage with what's happening, especially new people who are appearing for the first time, as well as being a crucial communications channel to keep systems functioning.
A sturdy and waterproof sandwich board to dispense leaflets - simple genius.
They have a yurt, but they also have a liferaft:
Seeing as part of the camp is actually on the boardwalk over the River Lee with the water flowing a few feet below it, visible through the boards, perhaps a liferaft isn't such a bad idea.
They've had their share of random entertainment - for example a fleeing inpatient from Cork University Hospital showed up there yesterday morning, IV still stuck in their arm.
Interestingly they mentioned similar issues to the Dublin camp in terms of how to welcome and work with homeless people. They have similar security issues too, with people being on shift for far too long, and generally with participants' burnout. They have had problems with drug users, and dealers, coming on to camp, as has been a problem at Occupy Dame Street, and the less thorny issue of residents occasionally drinking excessively.
Storing and managing money and donations securely is something they've tackled through taking cash off site every day and they've opened a Post Office account, to avoid having a bank account - which would after all hardly be in keeping with a protest against the bailout of banks. Didn't get to attend a General Assembly but their are apparently still quite focussed on internal camp issues and logistics, sometimes tackling policy issues, and often going on for quite a long time. They had a silent protest on Saturday morning with people with tape over their mouths, and had a sit down protest in a bank previously which got a lot of positive media coverage. Lots of enthusiasm and good will from businesses and passersby, lots of people signing up, plenty of music (they too sometimes beat to the sound of the dreaded drumming circle) and lots of folks beeping their horns as they drive by. Lots of similarities, lots of differences, plenty to learn from each other.
