The bus was booked, the painted banners were drying nicely and spirits were, if not exactly high, then at least strong.
Amanda Power ran through the details. “We’re leaving at nine and should be in Dublin by 11.30 and then we’ll meet up with all the others at twelve.
“We have the bus and then others are making their own way. It should be a good turnout.”
Power and her friends and neighbours from Kilmeaden, Co Waterford are one of numerous groups from around the country travelling to Dublin for Saturday’s protest against data centres.
RM Block
Others are coming from Kildare, Louth, Clare, Mayo, Westmeath and Meath as well as Dublin’s suburbs where data centres are most heavily concentrated.
The protest, which begins at the Garden of Remembrance at midday, is one of almost 100 taking place across 16 European countries this weekend as opposition to rapid data centre expansion grows.
Although the data centre proposed for Kilmeaden, on the site of the village’s once famous cheese factory, was refused planning permission a fortnight ago, the Kilmeaden Says No group suspect their battle is not over.
“They probably will appeal it. We’ll know in the next week or so,” Power said.
“They have so much money gone into the planning and designs, it wouldn’t be too much more off their back to appeal.”
“Then we’ll have to go again,” she said, recalling the hundreds of objections gathered, the protests, slow drive-bys and other actions the community initiated.
In Naas, Co Kildare, there are similar concerns. Lesley Cowper of Data Centre Awareness Kildare is among those trying to get the council to overturn a zoning decision that opens up large tracts of land for data centre development.
“I live within 20 minutes’ walk of Naas and a slow walk at that but I could be living beside a data centre 130 metres from the border of my estate,” she said.
“That’s how close this would be – it’s practically in the town.”
Like their Kilmeaden counterparts, the Naas residents and their supporters are joining Saturday’s protest.
They all say they are heartened by the fact that others share their concerns and are willing to take to the streets to voice them.
“There definitely has been a big turn in public opening in the last year,” said Power.
“When this application went in, we had some people who didn’t know what a data centre was or the resources it used.
“Now they see all the benefit is for Big Tech with very little return to local people.”
Cowper said it was the disinterest shown by many county councillors in Naas’s concerns that rallied the community.
“We were all a bit shocked and stunned that we got very little engagement,” she said.
“The view was that this was going to be great for jobs and investment and it was a given that it was going ahead.
“They weren’t listening to what the people actually living here were saying.”
Cowper hopes the combination of voices from communities, NGOs and Opposition parties at Saturday’s protest will make them impossible to ignore.
The issue is also sparking protests in Australia, India, Indonesia, Chile and other countries.
In the US, data centres was one of the issues that cost many Republican representatives their seats in this week’s midterm elections.
The Dublin event, organised by Friends of the Earth Ireland, will call on the Government to impose a moratorium on new data centres.
“A moratorium on new data centres should be common sense,” said spokeswoman Rosi Leonard.
“They are increasing our energy bills, they are locking us into a new generation of fossil fuels, and workers’ rights are being undermined more and more by expensive gambles on AI.”
“We’re proud to join other countries and communities who are all asking the same question as us: who benefits from massive data centre build out, and who pays the price?”
