DAIL ANTI-WAR PROTEST: The conduct of riot gardaí who were not wearing identity numbers when they clashed with anti-war demonstrators outside the Dáil this week has been defended by the Minister for Justice.
Mr McDowell staunchly stood by the force amid accusations by opposition TDs and protest organisers that gardaí in riot gear who looked like "men from Mars" had intimidated and attempted to provoke the peaceful demonstrators.
The Minister insisted gardaí had used no violence on Wednesday night in removing protesters who, he said, were breaking the law by blocking the main entrance to Leinster House.
Gardaí from the public order unit who clashed with demonstrators while attempting to clear a path through them were not wearing identity numbers.
This provoked comparisons with last year's violence during a May Day anti-capitalist rally in Dublin, when protesters clashed with gardaí, some of whom were not wearing identification badges.
Mr McDowell yesterday accepted that it was "a matter of legitimate concern" that gardaí in riot gear did not have their identity numbers visible.
"Since the May Day protests myself and the Commissioner have discussed this matter and a working group has now established that there will be identifying numbers on every Garda helmet in the public order unit," he said on RTÉ radio's Pat Kenny programme.
However, a spokesman for the Garda press office could not say when the numbers would be placed on the new purpose-made riot uniforms. They would be attached "as soon as they can," he added.
Mr Gordon Holmes, the chairman of the Garda Complaints Board, said that "in general there would want to be a compelling reason" for gardaí not to show their identity numbers.
The organisers of the protest and opposition TDs who attended it rounded on the authorities yesterday, accusing gardaí of behaving aggressively and insisting that the demonstrators were peaceful.
"There is an attempt to criminalise the peaceful anti-war movement but we will not be intimidated by that," said Mr Joe Higgins, a Socialist Party TD who was himself lifted off the street by riot gardaí on Wednesday night.
"It beggars belief that almost a year after the debacle of May 1st last year that we had dozens of gardaí attired like men from Mars and not one identity number in view so that taxpayers whom they were mauling could identify them."
The Garda spokesman replied "no comment" when asked to respond to the accusations that gardaí had tried to provoke demonstrators. An anti-war priest who attended the protest said gardaí were very restrained.