Monday, 8 July 2013

Courtney Brothers Circus Protest Day 3



July eight, the third day of the set of peaceful protests that have been set up in order to broadcast the message that the Courtney Brothers Circus is mistreating its animals as Day 1 shows their history of neglect towards the animals that they keep for the purpose of public performances. Today’s protest started off as the standard peaceful protest in which the group stands in the area, Liam Mellows Avenue, Arklow, County Wicklow,  that has been allocated for the purpose of broadcasting it’s message through the banners they hold, however a particular member of the Courtney Brothers Circus walked around the group and sat on a nearby bench. Promptly a member of the protest took a picture of him sitting on the bench for the member was most likely sitting there for the purpose of inducing discomfort amongst the group of protesters for the purpose of painting the protesters in a negative light. However once the picture was taken, the male circus group member stated that what the photographer was doing was illegal, a line which was basically an echo from the previous night as I tried to take a picture of a female member of the Courtney Brothers Circus who sat on a curb when the protesters were getting ready to leave on July the seventh and, very much like the male member of the circus in the present event above, she stated that what I was doing was illegal. It should be noted that while the picture was being taken one of the protesters was ringing the guards as she felt quite uncomfortable with the male’s presence among the group. Following the male’s claim that the protester taking his picture was performing an illegal action, the photographer made a counter claim which was that the members of Courtney Brothers Circus have been taking pictures of the group of protesters or have taken pictures in which the group of protesters could be seen in clear view, and a short argument ensued to which after it’s quick conclusion, the man returned to the entrance of the circus and he took a picture of the group of protesters. Once the Courtney Circus member returned to the Circus, the protest went on as normal

Picture of men posing, note how the group of protesters are perfectly visible (Picture taken on day one)

As time went on, the same man returned to the bench and sat there for a period of time. He was static, doing nothing except for looking at the group and checking his phone at times. I would like to note that despite the above account describing how he reacted right after someone started took a picture of him, he did absolutely nothing when I was taking photographs. He just remained in the same position for a period of time. Eventually he crossed the road to go back to the Courtney Brothers Circus and hung around the entrance of the circus alongside another male. The spectacle of the day beings here as the circus group member makes a number of gestures at the protesters, for example sticking his middle finger up at the protesters while children were nearby. This sparked off a very negative reaction as some people notated that the gestures that the men made was quite immature and that it was quite foolish for them to make such gestures, especially since there were children who would have seen these men making these gestures in plain sight. However it should be noted that people attended the circus regardless of the gestures that the worker made near the entrance of the circus itself.

Worker sitting on a bench observing the protesters

The spectacle of the protest reaches its peak when the Gardaí arrive on the scene to investigate the events of the protest that have led to a member of the group of protesters calling the Guards with a complaint about the workers at the Courtney Brothers Circus. To start off the two Gardaí members approached the group of protesters and requested that the people who witnessed the event in which the circus workers were aggressive towards the group of protesters, give the guards their name and contact details. The guards then proceeded to ask the group questions regarding the event so that they can get an overview of the situation. One of the female members of the Protesters explained the situation to the Gardaí officers who were on the scene. She stated that the members of the circus had been walking around the protesters and taking pictures of the group as the protests went on. Once the officers heard the protesters’ side of the story they then spoke with the male member of the Courtney Brothers Circus, who had been intimidating the protesters. He then gave his side of the story with regards the current situation that led to the Gardaí being called and after he explained what the situation was from his perspective, the Gardaí officers talked to the protesters again. The two officers advised the protesters to leave the scene once the two officers were gone and while a small number of the protesters stayed behind, the majority of the protesters went home.


Gardaí discussing the situation with a member of the Courtney Brothers Circus



Gardaí discussing the situation with the protesters

As one can easily tell from the general description of the day, my opinion of the day is not very positive as I felt that today was quite unsuccessful. Even though there were a number of people who gave their support through beeping at the group in encouragement and general people walking by and taking interest in the protest along with taking a flyer, the situation with the Courtney Brothers Circus workers dampened down the entire experience because of the fact that the Gardaí had to be called in which caused a ridiculous amount of tension as I constantly feared that something was going to happen. At this point I can only hope that tomorrow’s protest goes well as it is the final day of the set of protests as tomorrow is the last show that the Courtney Brothers Circus will be hosting in Arklow.

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