{"id":426819,"date":"2026-05-01T10:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/426819\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T10:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:57:08","slug":"gardai-to-change-approach-to-protests-in-wake-of-whitegate-fuel-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/426819\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed to change approach to protests in wake of Whitegate fuel blockade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garda\u00ed would \u201ccertainly move more quickly\u201d if a blockade of critical infrastructure \u2014 such as the Whitegate oil refinery during the fuel protests<\/a> \u2014 were to happen again, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly has said.<\/p>\n

Mr Kelly defended the garda\u00ed\u2019s use of pepper spray at the Whitegate protests, saying that garda\u00ed had to deploy it because protesters failed to heed garda\u00ed\u2019s warnings to move.<\/p>\n

No one was injured in the protests, he said.<\/p>\n

Far right ‘attempted to exploit’ protests<\/p>\n

People from the far right \u201cattempted to piggyback\u201d on the fuel protests and exploit them, the garda commissioner said, adding this influence of far right agitators is a concern.<\/p>\n

They were seen on social media and in person at the protests, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople from the far right attempted to piggy-back on the blockades and attach anti-immigration issues to them,\u201d Mr Kelly told Thursday’s meeting.<\/p>\n

Another big concern was intimidation of fuel-truck drivers, members of the Defence Forces, and garda\u00ed at the protests, he said.<\/p>\n

An incident room has now been established in every Garda division to investigate complaints by garda\u00ed of abuse.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed missed children\u2019s birthdays and other important events, coming to work on their days off to police the protests, he said. Abusing them in the course of their work was \u201cappalling\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Kelly said the policing of the fuel protests had been a success overall.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed to act more quickly in future<\/p>\n

Deputy Commissioner Shawna Coxon said that were such protests to erupt again, garda\u00ed may move more quickly to enforcement.<\/p>\n

The Defence Forces were only ever requested for technical backup, said Mr Kelly, with no requests for troops on the ground.<\/p>\n

A review of how the fuel protests were policed is taking place and lessons will be learned from it, he said.<\/p>\n

So far, there have been 47 summonses and charges relating to the fuel protests, with 166 fines issued.<\/p>\n

Body-worn cameras<\/p>\n

Body-worn cameras were successfully used during the Whitegate blockade, the PCSA meeting heard.<\/p>\n

They proved a deterrent to potential abuse and an asset in public order policing.<\/p>\n

Chief Superintendent of Cork County, Vincent O\u2019Sullivan said that some garda\u00ed policing the Whitegate protests had been seconded from Limerick, where body-worn cameras are being piloted.<\/p>\n

They had a \u201cnight and day\u201d positive effect, Mr O\u2019Sullivan said, providing a transparent and accurate view of the blockade. It was the first time body-worn cameras were used in the Cork County Garda division.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed who wore them found that protesters who took out their own phones to record garda\u00ed put those phones away when they saw the garda\u00ed\u2019s cameras.<\/p>\n

The garda\u00ed\u2019s cameras also caused protesters to disperse, Mr O\u2019Sullivan said.<\/p>\n

He said the majority of protesters at Whitegate were \u201cdecent people… with good integrity and intentions\u201d. But other people came to the protests with very different motivations. Body-worn cameras are now being procured for the entire force and will be rolled out on a phased basis, Mr Kelly said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed would \u201ccertainly move more quickly\u201d if a blockade of critical infrastructure \u2014 such as the Whitegate oil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[79,13308,8858,63615,7782,42,43,58,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-426819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cork-news","tag-defence-forces","tag-energy-prices","tag-fuel-prices","tag-gardai","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-social-media","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}