AN ACTIVIST HAS been accused of causing more than €16,000 worth of paint damage to the Department of Foreign Affairs during a pro-Palestinian rally.

Léna Seale, 32, a self-employed creative, is accused of criminal damage to the facade of Iveagh House, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, on 18 November.

Seale of Phibsboro, Dublin 7, appeared at Dublin District Court today when Judge Michael Connellan refused jurisdiction after hearing the estimate for the damage was around €16,800.

He held that her case will go forward on indictment to the Circuit Court, which has broader sentencing powers.

The Palestinian solidarity campaigner was remanded on continuing bail to appear again on 2 May so that the State could serve her with a book of evidence before granting a trial order.

Seale remains on bail but has been ordered to obey a condition: she must not go within 200 metres of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

A crowd of supporters turned up at the Criminal Courts of Justice with banners and stood on the steps where they unfurled a massive Palestine flag as the case went on inside.

The 18 November rally saw thousands march through the streets of Dublin.

They came out to show support for the Palestinian people and to call for a ceasefire following the Israeli retaliation on Gaza in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel on  7 October last year.

The protest started at the Garden of Remembrance and continued across the River Liffey, with demonstrators chanting: “In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians”; “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, and: “Ceasefire now”.

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign organised the demonstration.

Some protesters took part in a sit-in at the Iveagh House, an eighteenth-century Georgian building that contains the Department of Foreign Affairs.