O’Connell Bridge was blocked on Thursday evening by a protest against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Traffic was blocked along the quays and along O’Connell Street.
At about 8.40pm, Dublin City Council’s traffic management centre said O’Connell Bridge, Bachelors Walk and Eden Quay, which were previously “blocked by protestors”, have reopened in all directions.
Protesters blocked the main city centre thorough way from peak rush hour at 6.30pm. By 8pm, dozens of protesters were assembled on the bridge. They told The Irish Times they planned to block traffic for “as long as possible”.
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Most of the protesters were masked and did not wish to speak to the media. One masked woman declined to say who the protest groups were, saying only they were representing a coalition of pro-Palestinian groups across Ireland.
“This is a coalition protesting the encroaching invasion on Gaza city, the scale of how things are right now. We want to disrupt business as usual because the Irish Government is not acting as it should be. It’s giving rhetoric support to Palestine but it’s not actually acting,” she said.
Some commuters got off buses to question and challenge protesters, but the woman said that overall people had been “understanding”.
“We’ve had a shocking amount of people who have been inconvenienced and are still so supportive of this cause,” she said.
