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Fridays for Future Limerick 2020 Shoe Protest happening July 3 

The Shoe Protest for Fridays for Future Limerick will be happening on July 3, 2020 in front of City Hall. Pictured above are people protesting as Covid-19 restrictions start lifting.

Fridays for Future Limerick 2020 Shoe Protest happening July 3 

By I Love Limerick Correspondent Sophia DiBattista

This year’s Fridays for Future Limerick 2020 protest has been postponed because of Covid-19, but now it is being held in front of Limerick City Hall on July 3 from 11am until 3pm.


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In order to promote the protest and social distancing, the Fridays for Future Limerick organisers are asking participants to use their shoes to represent the young people and children who want to stand up for climate justice and change within Limerick. This is the organisation’s first Shoe Protest.

The Shoe Protest will include members of XR Limerick and XR Youth Limerick and Clare. These people will settle in front of Limerick City Hall to call out to the national and local authorities and push them to respond to the Climate Crisis. The organisations feel this subject is just as urgent as the Covid crisis, impacting the environment and its people just as much and for a longer amount of time. They feel that enough is enough, and we need to act on this cause now more than ever.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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This Friday (July 3rd), Fridays for future Limerick will team up with @extinctionrebellionlimerick to hold a climate action protest while respecting social distancing guidelines. To do this, we will get together as many pairs of shoes as possible and gather them in front of the City Hall to represent the people of Limerick standing up against climate change. To make this protest great, WE NEED YOUR SHOES!! If you have any old shoes, in any condition, please drop them in to us either in person (1st & 2nd July @ Thomas Street from 11am-1pm), or leave them in with @duoireland , who have kindly agreed to leave a donations box in their shop. After the protest, shoes in good condition will be given to local direct provision centres, so your old shoes will not only show your support for climate action, but they will also help someone else who needs them!! #limerickshoes #bailouttheplanet #fridaysforfuture

A post shared by climate activism in limerick (@fridaysforfuture.limerick) on

On the Fridays for Future Limerick website, members are asking the Limerick City and County Council to prioritise the Climate Crisis as much as the Covid crisis, include “climate change mitigation measures” in the ‘Guiding Limerick through Covid-19’ plan, consider climate change in future plans and policies, provide “air and environmental quality improvements” and help citizens everywhere live “low-carbon lives”.

Not only is this Shoe Protest taking place in Limerick, but it is a Europe-wide event to raise awareness about climate change. This will take place for an entire week called ‘Bail-out the Planet’, which calls for Covid payments to terminate fossil fuel subsidies. 

On Friday, people can choose to gather around City Hall for the allotted time or they can donate shoes to the protest. To do so, participants can either drop off their shoes to the Fridays for future Limerick strike at the end of Thomas Street in Limerick City between 11:30am and 1pm or they can contact Áine on 0863027099. The shoes can be dropped of and also picked up afterwards, but it must be specified. 

Monica Thorne of Fridays for Future Limerick commented on the event saying, “A lot of the time with these protests, you are counting on lots of people turning up on the day, which isn’t always a given. This time, the shoes won’t be going anywhere (we hope!) so we have a guaranteed turnout of a few hundred at least, which is great!”

“We planned this protest with Covid in mind – the shoes represent the people of Limerick standing up for the planet while respecting social distancing guidelines against large gatherings. As a group that emphasises the importance of listening to science, we felt it was only natural to pay attention to the measures the WHO has recommended to stop the spread of the virus, and for these guidelines to shape how this protest would be held. Both covid 19 and climate change are crises, so they both need to be met with urgent responses,” she said.

Follow XR Limerick (@XRLimerick) and XR Youth Limerick and Clare (@xryclarelk) on social media platforms today to keep up to date! For any questions, please email [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected].

For more information on Fridays for Future Limerick, click here.

For more stories on Fridays for Future Limerick, click here.

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