The former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was pelted with eggs as he arrived at Easons bookstore on O’Connell Street in Dublin on Saturday.
The morning after he had appeared on the first Late Late Show of the new series the controversial politician had visited the shop in order to sign copies of his best-selling autobiography A Journey.
He was greeted by around 200 angry protesters representing groups opposed to the part Blair had played in the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Also present were members of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Coalition and the 32-County Solidarity Movement.
Four people were arrested after clashes with Gardai amid rainy scenes. Eggs, bottles and shoes were thrown at Blair, although none hit the former PM.
It was the first time Blair had attended a signing. Around 300 people queued to get their books autographed and O’Connell Street was closed to traffic for part of the morning.
Blood money
Richard Boyd-Barratt of the Irish Anti-War Movement said that the money made from the sale of the books was “blood money”.
Easons managing director Conor Whelan said: “We’ve had a huge customer demand for Tony Blair’s book.
“We hold these events in response to our customer demands and they turned out this morning in very large numbers to meet Mr Blair.”
