Last Thursday’s protest organised by AMLÉ might have been the largest and most memorable student protest that Dublin City had seen for many years, but to the French international students in attendance it was nothing but baffling.
We spoke to Luca, a Parisian student studying French Law in UCD, who attended the protest. Wearing a gas mask, flame-repellent clothing, and a stab-proof vest, Luca was disappointed to learn he had, in fact, over-prepared. “It was like there was no protest on, even. I had to buy all this stuff new again because they confiscated it at the airport unfortunately,” he told us, gesturing to his equipment. “All this time I was under the impression that this would be the minimum requirement. I wasn’t sure if I was in the correct place because I could not detect the odour of gasoline anywhere. Pff [sic], I could not understand it.”
He recounted how he was bewildered by the lack of police presence and the civility of the protesting crowd. “There were no weapons or anything. After a while, I took off the mask because it was getting a little warm. People were shouting a little. I heard that the university in the front did not even want to shout bad words. In France we pay 10% of what you pay here, and we still set things on fire for it.”
The Turbine also heard from Charlotte, an Erasmus student who chose to go to UCD because she loved U2 and thought more people here would like them too. She found herself swept up in the crowd as they made their way from the Garden of Remembrance to Leinster House. “I thought we were going to the protest, I didn’t realise that it was the protest. We arrived and there was a band playing Fontaines DC music, but in fact it was not actually them so that was a bit sad.” We asked her what she thought of the Irish style of protesting. “To be honest, I am not sure why you do it. But the president for UCDSU in the red jacket was handsome for sure, so it wasn’t a total waste of time.”
With reports of vandalism, strikes, police brutality, and riots by lycée students in France, the culture of faire des manifs could not be more different. An information leaflet published by the French Embassy in Ireland last year details this reality and proposes methods to ease the blow of this cultural shock. These include taking small sniffs of tear gas and burning oil to satisfy cravings, and to eat copious amounts of cheese to dull the senses before leaving for a protest. The French Embassy is also planning to launch an information campaign about Irish protest culture to avoid any such confusion from reoccurring in the future.
Cat Stevens – In the Paddywagon