Irish protesters were told they are not allowed to speak or sing in Irish at the pro-Palestine protest camp near the Reichstag in Berlin. About 40 activists were attending the ciorcal comhr (conversation circle) event as Gaeilge when large numbers of police arrived and told them to stop and move on.
They also sang songs in English and Irish, including traditional favourite r S Do Bheatha Abhaile.
Police broke up the Irish language event attended by about 40 Irish people living in the German capital, under rules that only allow English and German, and in some cases Arabic, to be used during protests.
German authorities have been increasingly restricting pro-Palestine protests against the governments support for Israel amid its war in Gaza. The ban on languages other than English and German, in Berlin without a designated translator present to interpret for police is seen as mainly targeting Arabic speakers, and therefore Palestine supporters.
Irish is an official language of the EU, with equal status to the 23 other official languages of the EU since January 2022.
Irish woman Caoimhe McAllister, who was attending the protest, said the group of approximately 40 people gathered at 6pm at the protest camp in front of the German parliament, the Reichstag, on Friday evening, April 19.
At that camp, especially in the last days of Ramadan, there was a crackdown on any Arabic-speaking, including arresting someone, she said.
So we decided to highlight what we see as a really worrying human rights concern. We just had to highlight this by speaking in Irish.
Ms McAllister has been living in Berlin for 14 years and is originally from Belfast. She is a member of the Irish Bloc, a group based in Berlin supporting Palestine.
The police expressed concern that people might be discussing terrorist activity, or what they call incitement to violence, Ms McAllister said.
"They were worried that we, in Irish, would say something that glorified terrorism or incited violence and therefore we were required to have an interpreter to clarify that for the police officers there.
"And because we didn't have one, we were banned from speaking in Irish.
Ms McAllister told the Irish Independent there was already a very heavy police presence when the group arrived at the camp.
She said they were immediately stopped from carrying flags and a handmade banner that said Saoirse don Phalaistn Bheirln (Freedom for Palestine Berlin) and police wouldnt let them display it as it was too political in nature.
The meeting was structured by the group as a discussion or a conversation circle plus songs.