National Security
Dail Éireann — 2024-02-20
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Paul Murphy (PBP), Dublin South-West

The evidence is mounting of a concerted campaign of intimidation and repression by the State against pro-Palestinian activists in this country. I raised with the Taoiseach before the case of Léna Seale, a PBP local election candidate who was arrested, held for more than ten hours and charged with criminal damage for allegedly putting washable red paint on the Department of Foreign Affairs.
More evidence emerged at the weekend when, in the aftermath of a massive pro-Palestinian protest at which Palestinian activists were doing a BDS action on Grafton Street, gardaí approached an activist demanding that they remove their Palestinian keffiyeh, which was partially covering their face. No legal justification was provided for it. The activist did respond and removed it, but nonetheless the gardaí then decided to arrest two people, charging them with a breach of the public order Act. One of those activists is another People Before Profit local election candidate, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin.
In that context, another activist - again, another local election candidate for People Before Profit, Conor Reddy - was intimidated with undisclosed information being revealed to them by the unit, and this appears to be headed by a former head of intelligence at the SDU anti-terror unit. Why is this happening?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-02-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-02-20