Irish and French march together in solidarity in Dublin and Galway
Thousands of Irish and French walked side-by-side this afternoon in a solidarity march to remember those who died in last night’s terror attacks in Paris.
Marchers made their way from the GPO to Leinster house. Some were holding candles and linking arms while holding the red, white and blue tri-colour.
A Dublin, 6000 personnes se sont réunies cet après midi. 6000 personnes qui ont entonné la Marseillaise. pic.twitter.com/bylu7B0DV8
— #PrayForParis (@AntF44) November 14, 2015
Clara Tracey from Enniskillen has been in Dublin just six weeks after spending six years in Paris. She spoke to TheJournal.ie and said that she wishes that she was still in the city at the moment.
“I just moved to Dublin from Paris six weeks ago, after six years. So I feel like Paris is kind of my home and I wanted to come out. It’s kind of killing me that I’m not there in a way, but my family are happy I’m here."
Thousands march through Dublin city centre to show solidarity with the victims of the #Paris attacks pic.twitter.com/HN1GCLvuHz
— SharonGaffney (@Sharon_Gaffney) November 14, 2015
She added: I felt like I wanted to be around the French people and show suport."
The march was organised late on Friday night on social media by Juliette Charton. The 21-year old is a French au pair from Paris who is living in Dublin.
The crowd gathered and sang the French national anthem and paused for a minute silence.
Support for the march quickly grew and, with the assistance of the French Ambassador and An Gardai Siochana, thousands of people came to pay their respects and show solidarity with the people of France.
Henry Leperlien, the elected representative to the french in Ireland for France’s Socialist Party lead the front of the march that culminated at Leinster House.
“This is absolutely awful,” he said. “A lot of Irish and French people have come together and everybody feels extremely sad. We must stand together, we cannot yield in front of terrorism.”
According to the The Independent, there were an estimated 6,000 people present at the Dublin march.
In Galway a similar march took place to show solidarity with the people of Paris and to remember those who lost their lives in the tragedy.
