The straw that broke the camel's back in Mayo and elsewhere

by Dr. Richard Martin

I was fast asleep in my bed at Palestine House when I was awoken by horns blaring.

Trucks and lorries were out in force in protest. I turned over and went back to sleep.

Alison Laredo rang me to come out and join them. I was too tired. I’m up late these days reading and rereading the lost memoir of Sean Lemass.

Later in the day, I came across a video on The Connaught Telegraph Facebook page taken by Alison. It’s one for the books.

Patsy O'Brien, Rose Conway-Walsh, Eamonn Lavin and Tom Tom Denning are in the centre of a big gathering at the 1798 monument on the Mall, opposite the Church of Ireland.

Eamonn Lavin is the head of Lavin Fruit and Veg – which has a nationwide presence.

It supplies hospitals and prisons all across the island. Incidentally his son Eamonn Jr is the man contracted to demolish the derelict row of housing on Ellison Street. I walk by every day to see how’s progressing. The work is meticulous.

The Lavin concern started with a field of carrots in the early ‘80s in Breaffy. One field. The carrots were pulled from the ground and washed in a cement mixer. From small acorns do great oaks grow. In Breaffy, the carrots are far more profitable than the oak trees.

Tom Tom, as we all know, is a haulier. He has umpteen trucks on the road.

Both men are hard workers, resourceful and successful.

And the ongoing energy crisis and the subsequent rise in the price of diesel and petrol is damaging their businesses and entrepreneurs like them all across the country.

Let’s just cut to it. They are the engine of the local economy.

All these people dotted across the island, up and down the western seaboard, are the people who drive the country forward.

It’s their drive and entrepreneurship that keeps the wheel spinning. They employ people, pay wages and pay tax.

As it stands the huge increase in fuel costs is making their operations increasingly unviable. The government has to act.

Short term – they need to take decisive action and cut excise duty. Tax the windfall profits.

Long term – we need to copy the French model and invest in nuclear power.

Wind energy has its place but the only long term safe option for this island is nuclear energy. We are importing anyways from France – or will be from the Celtic Interconnector.

At any rate, oil and gas is a finite resource. What do we do when it eventually runs out in decades hence?

This island's economy is too susceptible to energy shocks and it always causes an economic crisis and political instability. This has been the way from the ‘70s onwards.

The French invested heavily in nuclear energy after the oil shocks of the ‘70s and today 70% of their energy is nuclear.

They have an economic model that is resistant to oil shocks and energy crisis. If they can do it, why can’t we?

The video kicked off with Councillor Patsy O’Brien – "They (the government) not helping the ordinary person in the street and the middle class are being badly squeezed."

He then passed the ball to Rose. She spoke passionately, and decried the absolute arrogance of the current government. They’re not listening to the people.

Sinn Féin, after all, are well versed in fuel economics and Rose rightfully pointed out that the 2 cent discount on heating oil is an insult.

Tom Tom then interjected (respectfully) and said: "With the big parties, you have a whip situation.

"This is the problem. I'm not standing up for anybody in government. I make that categorically clear.

"Now, there are politicians, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, who I know very well. And they've spoken, the same as we're speaking here today.

"But they cannot show their head above the parapet, because they get their head blown off in the whip situation. But I do think things like this, and this today, will serve a purpose.

"And I think they will listen and to go back to their leaders and say, listen boys, 'it's time for the monitoring to stop’."

His explanation of the current crisis is simple and straightforward.

The vast majority of government TDs know that there has to be a decisive response. Otherwise, businesses will become operationally non-viable and go into liquidation.

The fuel costs protests nationwide haven’t been as civilised. There is huge anger out there. Motorways have been blocked. The Whitegate Oil Refinery in Cork and fuel depots around the country have been blocked by protestors.

I feel it’s similar to the water protests of 2014 where people were enraged and frustrated by years of austerity and national bankruptcy and rose up in protest against the proposed water charges.

It was the water charges but it wasn’t. It was a combination of things summed together over a number of years which drove people out onto the street. It’s hard to believe it but when we surrendered our economic sovereignty in 2008, there were no protests. None.

What’s different about this nationwide protest is that it’s not a protest led by the left. The mood of the nation has shifted and has moved to the right.

Paul Murphy of People before Profit was told he wasn’t welcome when he visited the blockade of O’Connell bridge. He was a major figure in the 2014 protests. One protestor questioned him about immigration whilst others shouted ‘shame’.

Paul Murphy is an opposition TD. Even opposition TDs aren’t welcome. SF have no traction with this movement whatsoever. The protestors don’t feel solidarity with FF, FG nor SF.

John Dallon, a farmer and agricultural contractor from Kildare, was protesting in Dublin and said the government was "well able to dig money out of the ground when they need it."

"The Government are giving away millions and millions to countries at war. Now, no disrespect to them, countries at war or any of the nationalities, but the buck stops here," he said.

"You look after the people in your own country, the island of Ireland first, and when them people are looked after, and our own economy is sorted out, then help out the other countries that are in need."

That tells me that these protests aren’t just about the recent rise in fuel arising from the conflict in the Middle East.

There is huge pent up anger and frustration building in the Irish electorate over the past number of years.

People feel that the political system is failing them. When that happens it leads to anarchy. Eventually. And the protests are taking on an increasingly anarchial flavour. Open defiance and civil disobedience. Blocking of major fuel depots. When you ain’t got nothing you got nothing to lose.

And a lot of middle Ireland feel that way right now. The increase in fuel costs is just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

We live in a democracy, and civil protest is crucial to enact change. It happened in 1913. It happened in 2014. It needs to happen again.

All of tomorrows are there to be lived.