Dublin City Council, again, bans poster to spare US president's feelings

The Irish Neutrality League (INL) are holding a national demonstration this Saturday, protesting the visit of US President Donald Trump.

So, naturally, they wanted to let people know about it, and what exactly they are protesting, says Sara O’Rourke, of the INL.

Drawing on the Irish people’s constitutional right to freedom of expression, they wanted to explain, succinctly why they felt Trump should not receive anything close to a warm welcome.

The initial design featured a sketch of Trump's head, with a red circle around it and a red line through it – and the words "Not Welcome" above it.

And then the words “Warmonger”, “Racist”, “Epstein Class”, “Genocide Complicit”, and “Climate Denier”, wrapped in a circle around all that.

Dublin City Council rejected that design, she says, without explanation.

“So, then we assumed it was because of ‘warmonger’, ‘racist’, and all these things,” she says.

They sent another version, the same layout, but without the descriptors.

No joy there either, she says.

A version which made no direct reference to Trump and removed his image, and simply read: “No welcome for warmongers” was also turned down, again with no explanation, she says.

Another which maintained Trump's image, and read “Not welcome”, was not allowed either.

“What’s vulgar or offensive about ‘Not welcome’?” asks O’Rourke, referencing the council’s own posters protocol.

The version eventually accepted reads: “No to war and militarism. Yes to Irish neutrality.” No mention or allusion to Trump.

This is not the first time that Dublin City Council has censored protest materials that directly call out an American president either, says Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett, leader of People Before Profit.

Boyd Barrett was chairperson of the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) – with whom the INL are aligned – during the Bush-era, when America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were ongoing.

They hit the same walls with Dublin City Council then, he says.

Meanwhile, the original draft of the Trump poster, rejected by Dublin City Council, is currently flying without issue in places under the jurisdiction of both Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and South Dublin County Council, Boyd Barrett notes.

Vulgar or offensive

The council has its own posters protocol, published in 2022, that sets out the rules for hanging them around the city.

There are criteria for how the information is presented, like “the poster must have at a minimum 75% of the poster layout detailing the details of the meeting and this content must be clearly visible to members of the public”.

But the Trump poster seemingly broke the rule against content deemed to be “vulgar or offensive”.

A council spokesperson declined to comment when asked if it was the council’s position that describing someone as a racist, warmonger, or climate denier on a poster could constitute "offensive" content under the protocol, even if it is all true.

“It's serious censorship of the right to protest and promote a protest that they are refusing permission to the anti-war movement and the Irish Neutrality League and other groups, the wide coalition of trade unions and civil society groups, to advertise a protest against Donald Trump and to itemise the crimes that Donald Trump has committed,” Boyd Barrett says.

“In terms of supporting Israel's genocide, the war they've launched in the Middle East, the impact on the cost of living, his implication in the Epstein scandals, and many, many other horrors that he's visited on the world,” he adds.

Boyd Barrett says it’s "shocking" that the council would try and censor the promotion of such a protest, but that it doesn’t surprise him.

“The Irish government are so subservient to the United States in particular, and you know that subservience to the US has led them to facilitate US war mongering at Shannon for several decades now, and this is another instance of that subservience,” he says.

Which part of the protocol counts?

The poster protocol which says that vulgar or offensive material will be rejected, has a second part.

“In the event of such an issue arising, we (City Council) will discuss the issue with the Chairperson and as many members as possible of the Climate Change, Environment and Energy SPC, before making a decision regarding the issue,” it says.

So, was the chair and “as many members as possible” of the now-renamed Climate Action and Urban Resilience Strategic Policy Committee, consulted?

But there are 10 councillors on the committee, and six have confirmed that they heard nothing about the approval process for the poster.

Chairperson Declan Flanagan, a Fine Gael councillor, said via email that it was “an executive function, councillors are not involved in it”.

But not consulting the chair and the committee members is not actually in contravention of the protocol, according to the council.

“Waste Management received the initial poster application on the 03rd September," says a response that Flanagan shared, which appears to be from council staff.

"On review it contained language that would be deemed vulgar or offensive, the applicant was receptive to making changes for resubmission and as such there was no requirement to consult the Chairperson of the Climate Action and Urban Resilience SPC," it says.

“When the applicant changed the poster and resubmitted it later that day for a decision, it contained an image [a simple sketch of Trump's head] that would be likely to cause offence and as such this was not granted," it said.

“The applicant subsequently changed the poster again and reissued it for a third time. This was accepted as it did not contain language or an image that would likely cause an offence,” it said.

The message continued: “Dublin City Council did not have an issue with a protest being organised, the issue was how it was presented on the posters and if it was placed on public property, in public place.

“When evaluating poster application Dublin City Council must be conscious of all its citizens and visitors to ensure that the poster would not be offensive. In this case Waste Management deemed that it could be construed as causing offence and as such the applications were denied.”

Stop Bush

Deputy Rory Hearne of the Social Democrats was the national organiser for the Irish Anti-War Movement back in 2004.

The group organised a protest against a visit by US president George W. Bush in June of that year.

A poster featuring a cartoon of Bush carrying a US flag, with a large dollar sign replacing the 50 stars, and the words “Stop Bush”, was banned by Dublin City Council.

Hearne says that in light of the current Trump-poster rejections, he is disappointed that little has changed since the 2000s.

“I think it's unfair and of course the issue of posters and public displays need to be carefully monitored so as not to be inciting hate, but these are posters outlining reasons for a peaceful protest and should have been allowed,” he says.

Back in 2004, the council relied on the Litter Pollution Act, 1997 to take down posters. But the council voted to revoke its ban on postering public notices in 2006.

Boyd Barrett recalls that posters were hung around town all the time in 2004, and that the removal of certain ones seemed selective.

The Stop Bush campaign even registered as a political party so that they could hang posters, as parties were exempt from the Litter Act.

However, it was deemed that the posters were not relevant to any election, so they were still disallowed.

Again in 2008, ahead of Bush’s visit to Belfast, and when the lies on which his invasion of Iraq was based had been well brought to light, the IAWM were denied permission to hang posters promoting a protest.

The various groups coming together for Saturday’s protest against Donald Trump represent a “mad coalition”, says Sara O’Rourke of the INL.

“There's the usual anti-war suspects. There's all the left parties, all of them. There's the Rape Crisis Centre. The latest group that joined is Mammies for Trans Rights,” she says.

“It’s all of these groups that, in my memory, have never been together in a coalition,” she says. “It’s quite something.”

The protest is due to meet at the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm on Saturday 12 September.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.