A major policing plan is involving Gardaí from Cork North, and Cork West Divisions are being included to increase the Garda Presence in the city today. The event, which is planned to take place from 2pm is expected to see hundreds descend on the City Centre in protest to the current Lockdown Restrictions.

Organisers of the event, ‘The People’s Convention’ say that ‘This is a peaceful assembly, not a protest,’ and the “risk of trouble is minute.” (Source: RTE)

Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Joe Kavanagh has called on those planning a protest in Cork City today to cancel the event.

He said:

Tomorrow there’s a planned protest march which is likely to create a large gathering of people in the centre of our city. I’m not a medical expert and don’t claim to be but we’re all guided by medical experts who actually know what they are talking about. What they have quite clearly stated is that any large gathering should be avoided and tomorrow qualifies as a large gathering, so I’m calling on whoever is organising this gathering to please cancel it.

Praising the perseverance of the people of Cork, he said:

We’ve done so well here and the people really have put Cork on the map. We are now one of the top counties and cities in the country in terms of case numbers and the resilience of the people of Cork is absolutely exemplary – I am so proud of what Cork people have achieved. All this effort that has taken weeks and weeks to achieve could go out the window tomorrow. This has been classed as a potential super-spreader event and has the potential to create a spike in the number of cases.

I fully understand the frustration of people – for a year people have felt caged, their lives have been restricted, their ways of life restricted, their businesses have suffered, they’ve lost loved ones in a lot of cases but unfortunately the type of event that’s proposed in our city tomorrow could present all kinds of problems for the people of Cork in the long term. For the sake of your communities, our businesses and most especially our loved ones, I urge people thinking of going into the city to this event tomorrow to avoid doing so.

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