Laura Murphy pens open letter to Taoiseach condemning the "heavy-handed arrest of eight mothers, peacefully protesting the genocide of Palestinian people"

Opinion
01 Apr 25

Seán Mulrooney and Laura Murphy at RISING, Whelans. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Caroline Kelly

"At this time of rising fascism across the globe, it is essential that Ireland stands saliently apart from other countries who are viciously attacking the human rights of their citizens," she wrote.

Following the widespread public outcry over the arrest of 14 people, including eight women from the Mothers Against Genocide group, who were protesting the Israeli war in Gaza, poet Laura Murphy has shared an open letter to the Taoiseach Micheál Martin - calling the "display of authoritarian aggression" as "nothing short of despicable.

On Monday, 14 peaceful protestors were arrested after an entrance to Leinster House in Dublin was blocked. Mothers Against Genocide had held a vigil on Sunday evening, Mother's Day, to honour the mothers and children who have been killed in Gaza.

They subsequently staged an overnight encampment calling "for the Irish Government to act on the ever-worsening genocide in the Palestinian Occupied Territories” and had plans to deliver a letter on Monday morning demanding action, including enacting the Occupied Territories Bill.

"The display of authoritarian aggression at the gates of our parliament on peaceful mothers, some clearly traumatised and crying, was nothing short of despicable," Murphy noted in her letter. "The behaviour of the Gardaí, who supposedly police by consent was, today, more aligned to belligerent Israeli ethics than Irish.

"It is my understanding that recent actions by [Taoiseach Micheál Martin] are contributing to this dangerous and destructive descent into authoritarianism; most notably the outrageous adoption of the IHRA definition of anti semitism".

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A post shared by Laura Murphy (@everose)

Mothers Against Genocide also addressed the incident in a post on social media.

"These mothers spent Mother's Day away from their children to implore that the government stop being complicit in genocide," they wrote. "And rather than being engaged with as citizens standing up for international law, they were arrested, some were strip searched and treated in a degrading manner, tools of intimidation that will not stop us from standing up for the slaughtered mothers and children of Gaza.

"We won't be silent".