The Workers’ Party has criticised anti-lockdown protests that took place in Dublin, describing them as “an absolute insult” to frontline workers and the vulnerable.

David Gardiner, Workers’ Party representative for Palmerstown-Fonthill, said:

“The anti-lockdown protest in the city centre today could mean further spreading of the virus, meaning more illness and death. It was an absolute insult to those of us on the frontline as well as the vulnerable.”

“Nobody likes that we are in a pandemic, but the events today will only make things worse. Hundreds of people gathering in town and potentially spreading the virus could mean the need for a longer lockdown, not the opposite.”

“The only way to tackle the virus is through a Zero Covid strategy. The handling of the pandemic by the government has been poor and ordinary working class people have suffered as a result.”

He continued, saying:

“Though probably most of the people on that protest today weren’t far-right, the organisers certainly were. The Irish far-right,  self-proclaimed patriots, have well-noted links with sectarian loyalists and fascists in the north and the UK.”

“Their politics only serve to divide ordinary working class people, and that won’t benefit 99% of the people on that protest today. People should really think who they’re helping and who they’re hurting by going to these protests.”