St Patrick’s Day – 2008: A parade in Willesden on Monday March seventeenth 2008 celebrated St Patrick’s Day. I got here to it from a protest by the all-Irish environmental and social justice motion Gluaiseacht towards the Corrib Gasoline Undertaking in Mayo outdoors the Shell Centre, and needed to rush away for a protest by Tibetans on the Chinese language Embassy.
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade – Willesden Inexperienced
Brent is one in all London’s extra various boroughs and has a big inhabitants of Irish and Anglo-Irish residents, significantly in what was typically known as “County Kilburn“. As a borough it promoted numerous occasions to rejoice and unite its totally different communities, and amongst them I feel was the one London borough to have its personal St Patrick’s Day Parade.
Or it did till authorities cuts in funding to native authorities which hit significantly laborious on boroughs like Brent meant it might not afford to assist these group occasions.
London does now rejoice St Patrick’s Day with a march and occasion in Trafalgar Sq. on the closest Sunday to the day itself, and I photographed the primary of those, promoted by then London Mayor Ken Livingstone in 2002, although I solely put just a few black and white photos on to My London Diary.
However the parade in Brent, although usually involving a number of the similar folks and floats was at all times a extra fascinating and intimate occasion, with the massive native aspect giving it better authenticity and I used to be sorry to see it go.
Native folks got here to view the parade, some ready patiently on the pavement, others spilling out of packed bars drinks in hand because it arrived.
Native faculties bought concerned, with youngsters of all ethnicities changing into concerned – and their households coming to observe.
I went to the place the march was to start out, at an Islamic Centre near Willesden Inexperienced Underground Station, the place the streets had been most crowded and adopted the procession because it made its approach to the library in Excessive Highway Willesden the place there have been numerous musical performances and a little bit of a funfair.
St Patrick was there after all, with the Mayor of Brent and others main the parade. Folks walked with flags of the Irish counties (or no less than the 26 of the 32 which might be within the Republic of Eire.)
I needed to rush away shortly after the parade started to cowl one other protest.
Extra footage at Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade.
Irish Protest Brings Pipeline to Shell – Waterloo
All-Irish environmental and social justice motion Gluaiseacht had been in London for the weekend, and on St Patrick’s Day itself gathered outdoors the Shell HQ at Waterloo, bringing with them a really massive pipeline.
The protest was over the Corrib Gasoline Undertaking in Mayo within the north-west of Eire, which the Irish Authorities has given at a knock-down value to Shell, Statoil and Marathon. It’s a challenge estimated to be price over 50 billion Euros, however the Irish folks will hardly profit from the earnings – and Shell will get the biggest share.
Even worse the folks in Mayo will undergo from the air pollution round an inland refinery and a excessive strain pipeline that may endanger native communities. Protests in Eire have led to harmless folks being jailed.
Extra textual content and lots of extra footage at Protest Brings Pipeline to Shell.
Tibet Vigil at Chinese language Embassy – Portland Place
In keeping with the Chinese language Authorities, they “exercised restraint” in coping with the Lhasa protests, utilizing solely non-lethal weapons and solely killing 13 harmless civilians. Monday afternoon’s demonstration in Portland Place reverse the Chinese language Embassy was timed to coincide with the midnight deadline in Lhasa for protesters to give up.
After protesting for round an hour on the alternative facet of the large twin carriageway, one man jumped over the obstacles and rushed throughout in the direction of the embassy door waving a Tibetan flag. Others adopted and police had been unable to cease them.
The stewards from the protest tried to get them to make again and had been finally in a position to persuade them with some mild pushing to make again to the central island within the highway the place the protest continued, with a number of the protesters sitting down.
Ultimately police reinforcements arrived and after failing to influence them them to maneuver an officer learn out one thing over a loudspeaker. The protest was too noisy for me to listen to it, however I feel it was a warning that the protesters can be arrested in the event that they didn’t return to the pavement. The stewards then persuaded everybody to maneuver again to the pavement to proceed their vigil, and I went dwelling.
Tibet Vigil at Chinese language Embassy
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Tags: 2008, Brent, Chinese language Embassy, Corrib Gasoline Undertaking, setting, environmental protest, Gluaiseacht, Kilburn, Lhasa protests, London, London Photographs, Mayo, oil pipeline, peter Marshall, air pollution, protest, Shell Centre, St Patrick, St Patrick’s Day, Tibet, Tibet Vigil, Tibetans, Tory cuts, Willesden, Willesden Inexperienced
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