Solidarity

My office is within walking distance of Dáil Éireann on Kildare Street, so when I heard details of a solidarity march taking place at lunch time yesterday I decided to take a stroll up – for two reasons really.  Firstly, I felt inclined to answer the invitation to show solidarity with the marchers by turning up, and secondly I wanted to record the event in some images.  (I won’t go into the details, but you can read a little about what the march was about here)

It was quite a media circus, and there was some confusion surrounding how the final stages of the march, where the marchers arrived at the Dáil and presented a petition and four wreaths to representatives of religious orders, was going to proceed.

Many of the attendees had brought, as requested, a child’s shoe, and as the speeches progressed a little away from the gates of the Dáil, a small pile of children’s shoes began to build up.  It was, perhaps, more poignant and symbolic than the emotion that was being expressed on the stage.  As I photographed this image, I knew it would be the shot I would chose to represent the march.

Incidentally, I was struck by the obstacles that were put in front of the organisers in concluding the march as they had wished – they were not allowed approach the gates of the Dáil as a group, they had to meet the religious representatives on the back of a lorry about 100m away, and they were kept behind barriers as Kildare Street itself remained open to traffic.

As I walked back to work, I couldn’t help thinking that the victims who attended the march had had enough barriers put up in front of them in the last 40 years, and for one day at least, it would have been a simple but significant gesture to let them call the shots.