LISTEN TO THIS SPEECH .. THIS IS HAPPENING WORLD WIDE .. TAKE PART IN YOUR FUTURE .. GET EDUCATED .. GET INVOLVED IN YOUR FUTURE .. STAND UP AND SAY ... NO MORE This Is What Democracy Looks Like! Colm Maguire reports: What a day, what privilege to stand with over a 100000 Irish citizens at a protest for a new government and new way life, couched in a stand against a double water tax. Surrounded by people from Galway, Crumlin, Donegal and Dublin suburbs and city and many other places, the good humour , the slagging and the jokes were evident. People came from Sweden, from France, from Detroit USA. There were people who were not born in Ireland but have come to make it their home, people from Africa, and every where. On my way up to the protest I saw a great poster on a church For Heavens Sake what on earth are you Doing ? I thought it very appropriate for the day in hand. I was going up from NewtownMountkennedy. I had stayed over with a friend I met in college. We talked about a senator, she had been head of the radio Dept in the university. She was now a Senator thanks to being co opted by the Taoiseach. Its how politics works in Ireland, get into the media, join a political party and you are set for life. It doesnt matter which came first, the media or the party, it was evident what would happen later. The next morning walking down one side of the square there was the said senator strutting off to work. She vaguely remembered who we were, she probably didnt remember at all, I dont blame her for that, but I reckon she faked the recognition, its a way to be polite I guess. We asked if she knew who owned the barriers that had been erected to protect the parliament from a possible invasion. Streets were blocked off everywhere with metal barriers, owned by the company, owned by the man, who owned the water company. So the water company was effectively protecting the government from a non threat. I had popped into a coffee shop with my mate a few minutes before this. A man in his 60s looked at my foreign clothes and my camera, he gave me a nod, and winked. I winked back and looked at his wife. She nodded and politely smiled. Brisk weather I said Tis was the reply. It was bloody cold but the sun was shining. I thought to myself, only in Ireland. Only in Ireland do complete strangers acknowledge each other and nod and exchange pleasantries. This might not be true, but i have never been anywhere else where strangers are so not strange. I live in a town where I have seen the same people every day sometimes many times a day and they never acknowledge, its just not their culture. Ireland is not the thriving heaving country I left behind for love in 2003. However misguided I was, I remain in France where both of my children are in school. I see a country radically changed and radicalised. I am frustrated to be so far away and so unable to do anything. So perhaps this is the first post in a blog from a part of the diaspora that might look at opinions from far away. In the laughing dancing crowd there was a girl with stickler syndrome. Her ma told her she shouldnt go to the protest. But she insisted she wanted to. At one point a child of probably 8 or 9 years of age was given a microphone. She has been marching for two years with her community. She rallied the crowd like no one else. The chieftain of Ireland gave his confidence in himself address to the government and opposition parties yesterday and the media news barely even mentioned it. Maybe because the guy who owns the media, owns the water meters. The vote into power of this government was won because the government were elected to bring about change. In fact they merely reinforced the debacle of the previous governments , banks and bond holders and debt. Todays protest was because Irish people are paying 900 times what their European counterparts are paying for the international crisis, its about homeless men dying on the street. Its about the media being owned, by that guy, who owned the water meters and the barriers. So the good senator told us her party would be elected again. I cautioned her to look at what was happening on social media. Irish towns and villages and community groups are organising and seeking new ways to do politics, new ways to communicate, and the definite smell of peaceful revolution is in the air. I am frustrated I am not a part of it on the ground but I can get the word out to the disaffected diaspora, and tell them, Ireland has woken up, its not only the west that is awake, the North, South and East are rising with it. Ireland is an inclusive society, teetering on the precipice of change and if they get through the cold bleak mid winter, they will surely plunge over into a new Republic. There were thousands of Guards drafted in and military police and they were paid crazy over time. The city transport services were cut, access to the city was cut and the media reported 30, 000 apparently even before the people gathered. On a cold Wednesday afternoon, the gods smiled on the people and the organisers and given what they tell me, I would say 150, 000 people showed up. I saw no violence, I saw a disaffected police force over reacting and I saw a new dawn. This is not just for Ireland. This is for the planet. Happy human rights day. Clare Daly speaks to crowds behind the Dáil.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 02:18:58 +0000
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