Niall O'Connor Reporting from Cork.

THE MAJOR SECURITY operation has moved from Dublin to Cork with a French navy frigate assisting Irish Defence Forces and gardaí to secure the meeting of the college of Commissioners.

Sources have said a large number of Irish Air Corps aircraft and a garda aircraft were working on the operation that is still ongoing. 

As occurred in Dublin armed helicopters took up position in a counter drone picket along the coast above the main approach to Cork Airport. 

It is understood the French frigate moved from its location in the Irish Sea and was in international waters off Cork. It is acting as a radar platform and has the capability to shoot down air targets such as drones. 

An Air Corps Airbus 295 maritime surveillance aircraft was off the coast near the 12-mile limit of Ireland’s sovereign airspace and waters. 

The main events of the day have been focused on University College Cork (UCC) where the meeting of the EU Commissioners and various dignitaries are taking place. 

Hundreds of gardaí, uniformed and armed plain clothes members, have been working across the city today. Tactical armed gardaí from the Armed Support Unit and Emergency Response Unit were also in UCC. 

Armed Suport Unit Gardaí at City Hall Cork. The Journal The Journal

Fears that gardaí would not take up the duty in an industrial relations dispute did not seem to materialise.

At a car park below the university a large number of Public Order Unit vans and gardaí were enjoying the hot weather. 

Outside the front gate UCC workers and other activists held a pro-Palestinian protest with a large blanket, with each stitched square representing ten children killed in the war on Gaza.

A handful of gardaí were nearby, but the protest left after a few hours. 

There were no other protests. The Journal passed through the city to the other venue for events at City Hall and the Tyndall Building near the Mardyke where commissioners were shown a technology research facility but again there were no protesters.

Sources had said that the garda operation had developed some intelligence of protests and that was why there was such a large presence, but none of the anticipated demonstrations materialised. 

It is understood that French police officers have arrived to assist their Irish counterparts with counter drone technology. 

Cork city garda units and emergency services continued regular policing duties with a rescue of a woman who got into difficulties in the River Lee near UCC at 4.30pm. She was taken to hospital for treatment. 

There was also a multi car crash outside the city at the Jack Lynch Tunnel, which is a major road artery in the area. One woman was taken to hospital from that crash. 

At the protest earlier in the day Christine Chasaide, who works in the University and a member of UCC Staff for Palestine, was one of the leaders of the pro-Palestine demonstration at the gate. 

She said that the blanket was to demonstrate that the deaths of children in Palestine is a war crime. 

“We have organised this protest as we have the EU Commissioners with us here today and Ursula von der Leyen and what we what to say to them that it is well past time that you disassociated from Israel. 

“We need an end to the EU/Israel association agreement which cements the EU as a working partner with Israel in trade and political support. This means that through that money is generated and goodwill and prestige that allows the genocide to continue,” she said. 

The security operation will continue tomorrow with many gardaí staying in student accommodation near UCC.