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Dublin Live
Dublin Live
National
Amy Donohoe & Robbie Kane & Roisin Cullen

Protesters gather outside National Gallery of Ireland to object 'hypocritical' direct provision caterer

Protesters gathered outside the National Gallery of Ireland on Friday night to slam the "hypocritical" links the gallery's has with a direct provision caterer.

The Dublin gallery recently picked Aramark to run their cafe and the €7.5 million contract has sparked outrage among staff, artists and locals.

Three artists have already asked for their work to be removed from the building with the End Direct Provision action group gathering outside its doors on Friday evening.

Over 100 people were present at the demonstration with many telling Dublin Live that they felt they had to take action.

Activist, Paula Martinez explained the group's deep frustration about the new contract.

She said: “I’m a migrant here and this is one of the only places I can do something culturally for free, so when I learned about this, all of our efforts to work against direct provision, it’s like none of that matters for our institutions.

“This artistic institution should care. A few months ago they did an exhibition on direct provision, the hypocrisy and I can’t take it anymore. It’s very important that our voices are heard, this is not okay. We don’t want to support a company that profits from this.”

Another activist believes that it's important to raise awareness and for the public to know what is happening.

She said: “Aramark are in charge of a lot of food in direct provision centres, there’s a long history of issues that are well documented.

“We want the National Gallery to reconsider the contract with Aramark and also to raise awareness, for people to think about when they go into places, what they’re spending their money on, the companies behind it and where that money is going and what that company stands for."

Activists gathered outside National Gallery of Ireland to object the direct provision caterer (End DP Action Group Twitter)

A member of the action group explained what the End DP Action Group is and why they want change.

She added: “We’re a group of volunteer led activists with different backgrounds but we came together with the mutual agreement that direct provision needed to end and we’re here to push forward and make the government accountable for what they said.

“Roderic O’Gorman has said direct provision is not fit for purpose, he has agreed that it’s inhumane and the government has agreed that they will end direct provision and we are here to make sure that happens.”

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