Two arrested after Joe Biden’s surprise Trinity College visit

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk, with Ciara.

Ciara Kelly (0:08)

Now, speaking of security operations, news has been breaking this evening that two people have been detained during a protest at Trinity College in Dublin. This is because students began protesting after it became clear that Joe Biden had made a surprise appearance at an event for his son, Hunter Biden, who had been invited to Trinity to receive an award. The son of the former president was presented with a medal from one of the student societies, The HIST. And joining us now with the latest is News Talks political correspondent, Seán Defoe. Seán, first of all, tell us what happened today in Trinity with the Bidens and then what happened subsequently.

Seán Defoe (0:40)

Yeah, so there was kind of a surprise visit really. No one knew Joe Biden was coming. Even the people in the room were surprised. They knew Hunter Biden was going to be there. And then Joe Biden kind of came in, sat in the front row, and there was spontaneous applause for him. And we all kind of became aware when the T-shirt wasn't at Leaders Questions, which he should have been always on a Tuesday afternoon in Friar's Texco. Well, where is the T-shirt? And turns out he was meeting Joe Biden in the Marion Hotel for coffee, where they caught up on a whole bunch of things, including the International Affairs, Northern Ireland, and of course, naturally enough, Mayo's All Ireland Win was, of course, going to come up in that kind of a conversation. Then later on, down at Trinity, and I've just come from there, there was a bit of a protest once word got out that Joe Biden was in place. I'd say maybe 30, 40 people or so is what I saw at first. Then grew into a bit of a larger crowd protesting about Joe Biden's record on Gaza. They were shouting things like genocide Joe. Adam, and when he went to leave the building, there was a couple of students who attempted to throw cartons of milk at him.

I've seen pictures of his security team with umbrellas up, covered in milk, to try and stop him and protect him as he went to get into his car. Guardies subsequently have made a number of arrests. They wouldn't confirm the number. I saw one man, one young man being arrested and put into the public order unit van. It looked like there were a few people in there were just waiting for that.

Ciara Kelly (1:57)

Was there a big guard of presence in Trinity for the Bidens or were they caught somewhat on the hop as well?

Seán Defoe (2:02)

I arrived down there after, just after the Bidens had left. So I didn't see the full security operation for how many were there, but there was still a pretty significant operation. There was two guard of public order unit vans, at least one other squad car, and then sort of one of those security vans that they sometimes have. So there was a decent amount as well as campus security. And what kind of happened is that this protest from winding down, they'd given a last speech and they were starting to disperse. And then they saw one of their fellows being put into or trying to put into the public order unit van and it kind of kicked off again. The flags were out, there was people shouting. And after they put them into the...

Ciara Kelly (2:34)

Palestine, Palestine?

Seán Defoe (2:35)

A couple of Palestine flags, yeah. After he was put into the van, then a number of the students, including a few with megaphones, tried to block the public order van from leaving by standing in front of it. So even after it was moving, they stood in front, Gardaí had to pull them out of the way, rip several of them out of the way, actually to allow the two public order units to leave, and then it all kind of dispersed after that.

Ciara Kelly (2:55)

Okay. Thank you very much for that report, Seán Defoe. If anything else happens, we'll let you know here on Newstalk.

SPEAKER_1 (3:01)

The Hard Shoulder with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman with Kiya. Weekdays at four on Newstalk. Conversation That Counts.