Joan Burton vs The People (of Jobstown)
It’s a strange time to be an Irish citizen. Right now I’m watching elected government member, Paul Murphy stripped shirtless on a shaky camera video; a sight more suited to a Kardashian than an elected TD, but there ya go. Outside my front door, orange fencing has been placed around a hole, where our water meter is to be installed, and Irish Water workers, with darting eyes, are chatting and glancing over their shoulders. In Jobstown, an egg that missed another elected member of government, our Tainiste no less, is decaying on a dry side-path. Enda Kenny, our country’s leader is somewhere in the city scoffing down a quick Supervalue ready made sandwich and cursing the ‘enemies of democracy’ as his advisors, I’m sure, are nodding politely, “Thrown into a ballard? What has she done for democracy?!”
It’s a strange, but interesting time to be an Irish citizen, but it can also be quite a confusing one. What exactly did the barricading of Joan Burton mean? Why would protestors sully the peaceful national consensus, which was shown by a peaceful march of nearly 100,000 people in the nations capital, earlier this October? Why are water meter installers being berated and hassled? Well, for what its worth, here’s what I believe.
Water meter installers are basically, in the mind of the anti-water charge movement, wearing ‘Team Enda/Team Tax the poor” hi-vis jackets, strolling through areas where they aren’t welcome. Gardaí are being called in to protect the installers, thus adorning the “Team Enda” jackets themselves. Colours become less nuanced, and a black and white, “Us vs Them” scenario is pretty much inevitable. Why was Joan Burton detained in her car for hours? It’s because she was the closest, physical embodiment of people’s anger that could be found in Jobstown. The people of Jobstown are not actually interested in attacking water meter installers, they’re not interested in delaying the Tainiste in her numerous photo opportunities either; they just want someone to pay some goddamn attention to their grievances.
Paul murphy described the Jobstown protest, in a bizarre attempt at media spin, as peaceful. We’ll it wasn’t, but neither was it bloodletting on the steps of the GPO either. It was an overspill of anguish and frustration. The bricks which were being thrown aren’t wrapped in the list of demands of the 100,000 who marched this October, I would hasten to say that anything has ever been seriously, politically altered, by brick throwing; and when the annals of Irish History look back on these protests, I’m not quite sure that those bricks will feature. What will is the level of frustration. I don’t believe that the protesters were right to ‘menacingly’ crowd Burton’s car, (nor do I believe the Tainiste was in any serious danger) but I do believe it exemplified the feeling of many people, from all over the country, whom are unhappy with being charged for a commodity which, from 1997, was supposed to have been already paid for.
It’s a very Irish, middle class trait to howl in disbelief when a voice is raised or an egg thrown. In the Ukraine, politicians are, literally, being picked up and thrown into bins. Let’s calm the gasps and imagine if Joan Burton had been flung into a pole by a protester. But she wasn’t, so keep calm. During the bailout, Irish non-action became the talk of Europe, and our lethargy and obedience became our saving grace; if the Irish people cannot stomach the idea of an elected official playing with her phone, while genuinely aggrieved people bang on her car door, then I doubt they’ll be up for witnessing protests from other countries. What the anti-water charge movement needs now is another show of force through numbers, the fracases in Jobstwon do not represent the movement, but they do perfectly encapsulated its anger. 100,000 people marching again will have more impact then if the entire Dáil were barricaded in, plus, they would only end up hitting the bar.