Irish healthcare workers marched silently through Dublin on Saturday in solidarity with their counterparts abducted, imprisoned or killed in Gaza.
Starting from St Stephen’s Green, the Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine group were accompanied by the The Children’s Blanket. Also known as the Granny Squares for Gaza, each of its 3,000 hand-knitted squares represents 10 children killed in Gaza.
About 130 pairs of white shoes were displayed representing healthcare workers killed or abducted.
Nicola Cantwell, a pharmacist from Co Carlow, said in April 2025, 1,400 pairs of shoes were displayed in the Netherlands. She said that since then the number had increased to 1,700.
“The shoes we have today are to highlight that increase and to focus people on thinking about the individuals that wore those shoes.”
The variety of shoes, from high heels to sandals and runners, served “to remind people that every person who died in Palestine was a person with a life”.
“This idea of raising awareness is fantastic and standing in solidarity is fantastic, but now the world knows what’s happening, so now what we need is for the world to make a collective, concentrated effort to stop the killing,” she said.
“The people in Gaza at this stage are not living. They’re just surviving. We need to give them back the joy and hope so, that’s why we’re here today, is to call on everybody to make changes.”
Two years ago, Cantwell set up the Irish Pharmacists for Palestine group. She has attended the marches since October 2023 to “stand in solidarity with the healthcare workers, the doctors, the dentists, the pharmacists that have been killed while working.
“It’s the first time ever that doctors and healthcare and hospitals have been seen as a target.
“I think that’s what’s throwing us all because traditionally, if somebody came into you, it didn’t matter what side they were on, they were always looked after and that’s our duty of care.”
Usually, she said, up to 1,000 people attended the marches.
Marchers held signs, posters and banners and walked with Irish and Palestinian flags.
Some of the signs said “stop bombing Gaza,” “let the children eat” and “Israel tortures doctors to death”.
Mike Grennan, from Co Offaly, is not a healthcare worker but travelled to Dublin to attend the march and “show bit of solidarity”.
He and a number of marchers held posters with the names of healthcare workers who have been detained.
Dr Caroline Jagoe Sherman, a speech and language therapist based in Trinity College Dublin, also attended the march.
She said she worked largely on disability rights and humanitarian action, describing Gaza as a “political crisis causing a humanitarian disaster”.
“From a disability angle what we’re seeing is the intentional creation of disability through mutilation, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law.”