CSP member at Gaza demonstration!

So I went to the Latin Mass at 10:30, and then afterwards repaired to a café with some friends who thought my going to a pro-Palestinian demonstration bizarre and quixotic. But I was undeterred. After a hearty Irish breakfast I trudged across town towards O'Connell Street where the rally was to take place.

Turnout was large, there were definitely several hundred people present. Irish, Arab, young, old, punks, pensioners, angry young men, chatting mothers with buggies - all human life was there. Irish flags, Palestinian flags, black flags, placards. The far-left was represented too, of course. I'd been there about two minutes when a girl gave me an A4 leaflet from the Socialist Party, and a young man was prowling around selling a glossy magazine called Socialist Something-or-other. For a few minutes I stood at the edge of a crowd, feeling a bit awkward and wishing I had a flag or a placard or something. But the chanting soon got going. Free Free Palestine! Israel - Terrorist! George Bush - Terrorist! What do we want? - End the siege! And so on. You feel nervous the first time you join in the chanting, but by the second or third time you lose your inhibitions and bellow the slogans out with the rest. Passers-by stared. Shoppers, tourists in open-top buses. A few cars honked their horns in support. A pink limosine passed by emitting dionysian female squeals.

The speeches were impassioned. As well as members of the IPSC proper, there were others. A representative of SIPTU kept it short and to the point. Mary-Lou McDonald began her own speech by saying "Friends, I am sorry to be here. But I am proud to be here!" Fitting words. She'll be a tough opponent in the Euro elections in May. Richard Boyd-Barrett stayed true to the Socialist Workers Party tradition of speaking for too long, and using funny words like "unshamefacedly". A young Arab gave a ferocious speech in which he tore into the "cowardice" of Mubarak and other Arab leaders. But by that stage, things were winding down. I headed for home, grimly pleased with at least having added my voice to the chorus and vowing to write to my TD's and the Department of Justice.

I wonder how they would have reacted if I'd told them that a representative of the Christian Solidarity Party wished to say a few words? I hope it won't be too long before we do join in these protests. We in the CSP are Irish nationalists, and the fact that we have languished under foreign rule for so long binds us in a special way to the people of Palestine. And as a Christian party we are bound to solidarity with our fellow Christians, most of them Palestinian, in the Holy Land. I hope the CSP can soon officially join in protests like yesterday's. But it will take planning. We'll need flags, placards, leaflets and maybe a banner. And of course, most important of all, we'll need people. Yes, that was a hint!