The GPO

Another view from the scaffold. Other people, teens, had clambered up to my vantage. I can't say they were rioters. But they could have been. This ninja-cop hit the guy out of shot, but I missed it. My batteries were dying.
I followed the advancing ninja-cop phalanx. Bottles were falling around me. I jumped to avoid a bottle, that smashed at my feet. I found myself looking partially at the sky to see any missiles coming towards me.

I watched the barracade form, at the behest of a protester with a red hoody. Fire suddenly broke out.

There's larkin in the back, urging the protesters on. "Rise up people, rise up."

standoff at the spire.

By the time the riot police line had advanced to the spire. I climbed up a scafold accross from the GPO (General Post Office) and kept snapping pics.
This time when they told me to "get the fuck down." I just ignored them, and took several snaps of them yelling at me to get down.









The crowd above is chanting a slogan. I didn't make it out.



Then a police van arrived breaking hard. Just after the above picture was taken the van on the right, was attacked by the crowd, and reversed back into the van on the left. A big cheer rose out of the crowd.

more of the same...

When the phalanx of riot-police (which you can see in the Upr. O'Connell pictures advancing towards my location) eventually got to me they called for me to "Get the fuck down" from my vantage point atop the priest's statue - that's how I got the elevation you can see in the pics:) - I thought about it for an instant and decided to accede to their wishes.
When I climbed down, they kindly requested I "Get the fuck out of here." In order to do this I would have to leave the cover of the statue and run the gauntlet of raining missiles that protesters were hurling at police; rocks, bottles, bars and the odd barracade flew past me, huddling for cover, I considered my situation.
I shouted over the chaotic noise, "No way I'm going out there."
I couldn't see the riot police's faces since they were covered with black balaclavas. They stood behind a wall of interlocking clear perspex shields and brandished their night-sticks (so called, I realised, because if you get hit by one, it's night-night). I heard men roar at me, "Get the fuck out of here. Now."
I glanced towards the crowd, as a bottle smashed against the perspex wall; then back at the police, and said, "I can't. It's dangerous out there." (Since then I have been reminded of the Monty Python sketch where a christian pleads, as he's tossed into the lions den, "I can't; it's dangerous out there."
The perspex wall magically parted and a dangerously heavy night-stick jabbed me in the guts, then in the ribs - it left me with bruises - but I was high on adrenaline, I didn't feel anything but a vague hysteria; and an urge to laugh.
I stood cowering behind the priest's statue until the perspex wall parted again and the black clad ninja behind it took a swipe for my head. He hit the dust where my suddenly subversive sun-hat used to be.
I legged it. Stopped in the crowd and caught my breath - snapping pictures the whole time.

More pictures of it...

After the pics at the police cordon on Parnell, I circled around to the back of the riot. It was chaos. The sound was mental, shouting, roars. I climbed to a vantage point and got these pics of the advancing fracas.
All pics copyright,
To me that is;)

start of it (before it all kicked off)

coffee n cigarettes

Saturday morn I usually drink coffee. The cigarette comes after, by the window overlooking Parnell street, Dublin. While I was waiting for the coffee, I looked out the window, saw the line of police at the end of the street and grabbed a camera off my obliging flatmate.
Before I left the apartment, with my pjs still on under my pants, I planted a camouflage sun-hat firmly on my head.
I spent a stretch of maybe six hours running around Dublin, northside and southside taking snaps.
It was a crazy experience I'll tell ye.