Burke Family vs NUI Galway

CTYIgirl wrote: »

Photos?

Sorry, the one I attached was broken. It's there now. I'm uploading a video of the staged gay marriage at the moment. Will pop up there and take a few more snaps now...

Tramps Like Us wrote: »

Would you not just smash their noticeboard and waterballoon/egg them? Job done.

There's rules of engagement for this kind of thing. One must not resort to any kind of violence as that's really and truly what they want. One student trashed their stand early on, which lead to the Gardaí being called in the first place. Probably not the best thing to have done. GIG Soc will need to be vigilant of this happening in future, as it's up to them to make sure a counter-protest is handled with dignity.

Here's some more photos.

http://imgur.com/a/pnYaJ#0

Ok, it just disbanded entirely about 6pm, so here are some thoughts having seen almost the whole thing.

First things first, this began as a family, the Burkes of Castlebar, set up a stand in NUIG today at about 1pm in the concourse to promote the NO vote for the referendum for the Student Union of NUI Galway to support the right for same sex couples to marry. This was done legitimately and through the Buildings Office due to their children Enoch Burke and Isaac Burke, student of NUI Galway, holding the positions of auditor of the NUI Galway Christian Union Society and NUI Galway Pro-Life society respectively. This family has frequently been documented to engage in a specific agenda that targets gay rights, from their involvement in opposing the Civil Partnership Bill in 2010, defamation of David Norris later that year during his presidential campaign, their subsequent Supreme Court challenge to Civil Partnership, and other campaigns featuring reliance on linking homosexuality to pedophilia and beastiality.

Things got heated, when on displaying their posters which linked gay students to pedophilia. One individual pulled down their posters, a struggle ensued, and the table got knocked over. At this point, many students started gathering and declaring their disdain for the Burke family's message. The Gardaí were called by the Burke family, who wished to have their right to lobby for the NO vote maintained.

The Gardaí arrived shortly after this, and on hearing the Burke family's side of the story, the Gardaí took the student's side and asked them to leave, declared that their posters were slanderous to Irish citizens, and removed most of the posters themselves. Two members of the Burke family threw themselves in the way of one remaining poster dramatically, the Gardaí rolled their eyes and left, stating that this was a matter for the campus security to deal with. The crowds of students gathered around at this point were cheering and celebrating, and were looking at the Burke family with ridicule. The Burke family, instead of leaving, decided to stage a standing protest, which they engaged in silently.

Following this, GIG Soc and ShoutOut Society (NUIG's LGBT Societies), lead peaceful protests. One in which a same-sex marriage ceremony was staged in front of the Burke family, and another where a ring of students surrounded the family with rainbow placards stating, "Love, Not Hate". Student Union president, Sean Kearns, spoke out in front of the gathered crowds and asked people to disband and that those that disagreed with the family (the majority of those present) could voice their opinion by voting for anyone but Enoch Burke in the upcoming SU election for the position of Equality Officer. Most of the crowd of students disbanded at this point (about 2.30pm).

At about 3.30pm, things began to heat up again with the arrival of members of the NUI Galway Christian Union Society, and the previously silent Burke family now began exclaiming their rhetoric of linking homosexuals to pedophiles. The crowd of remaining students were encouraged not to engage with them by Maria O'Flaherty, auditor of ShoutOut Soc, but some people booed and shouted for them to leave. The counter-protesters then began to sing "All You Need Is Love" over and over and engaged in a sitting protest in front of them.

At about 4.30pm, with the arrival of hundreds of new onlookers, the protesters began to complain about their stand being destroyed and their voices silenced. So the crowd responded to that and shut up. Leaders of the counter protest encouraged them to vocalise what their message is, and the crowd obliged. They mainly spoke about how pissed off they were that their posters were removed along with their voices, and that marriage would slip into ruin if gays were to marry. Once they were done, several members of the crowd were allowed to talk, a few apologised for the individual that originally knocked their stand, and explained that these posters and their agenda seeks to remove not only their voices, but their rights as tax payers. The Burkes & Christian Union began shouting down the crowd members, and control of the situation shifted into chaos. Eventually this democracy was restored and the two groups began to communicate and discuss what exactly they were doing right now and that the Burkes should just leave campus.

This all died down at about 6pm, when most of the students left after being encouraged to by the leaders of the crowd. The Christian Union members also left at this point, leaving behind a now ignored Burke family. They too left at about 6.30pm.

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All in all, this was an incredible display of democracy by the counter-protesters. The Burkes could very easily have become martyrs for their homophobic cause, but were instead met with a blend of cheesiness, lighthearted eyerolling, open minded disagreement, and a group of strong and intelligent debaters. I've been involved in gay rights protesting in Ireland for 10 years, and this was just an incredible experience. My faith in humanity is massively restored.