Intimidation over LGBT+ material forces Cork library staff to march on City Hall
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Staff at Cork’s main library are set to march on City Hall on Friday to demand greater protection in their workplace amid ongoing intimidating protests over LGBT+ reading material.
It follows a decision to temporarily withdraw their services from the public counter at the Grand Parade branch one day last week after they were confronted again by a number of agitators who entered the city centre library carrying mobile phones in an attempt to record the interaction.
The trade union, Forsa, had advised its members working in the library to remove themselves from such a situation if it arose again. It had also previously called on city council management to do more to protect library staff in their workplace.
But now, library staff are set to march from Grand Parade to City Hall to ramp up those calls for greater protection in their workplace.
The first reported last March how staff at the library had been subjected to intimidation and horrific verbal abuse by a group of people objecting to the display of certain LBGT+ reading material.
In one incident, a group led by an individual who has also been involved in the intimidation of pharmacy workers over the covid-19 vaccine, and in various protests against the housing of international protection applicants, entered the library and ripped up a copy of by trans author Juno Dawson.
The library staff have faced several similar incidents since and Solidarity TD for Cork North Central, Mick Barry, now said the staff have had enough. This will be a protest of national significance, he told reporters outside Leinster House.
The staff at this library have been subjected to “intimidation and harassment from far-right activists” in their workplace, he said.
He said:
“We had a situation recently where four young people, who are peace activists, were slung out of a hall in UCC for daring to interrupt and heckle the Tánaiste.
“I think the treatment that was meted out to them stands in sharp contrast to what happens when you have rank-and-file library workers subjected to a far worse scenario.”
He said City Hall has a legal responsibility to protect these workers, and he urged the public to join the demonstration from 12.30pm and “send a message to the far-right" that they are opposed to the intimidation of working people. Cork City Council has previously said it has no plans to remove LGBT+ reading material from its libraries.