Protests in and out of Dail show ugly side of politics

World of Politics with Harry McGee

Politics is a confrontational business and occasionally it’s an ugly one – and two episodes in the past few weeks clearly illustrate that.

The first was the besetting of President Michael D Higgins as he left a function in Finglas. He had arrived for a celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of a school, Coláiste Eoin, but as his car was leaving it was surrounded by a mob of foul-mouthed protesters – who effed and blinded him and called him a parasite and a midget.

They were protesting against Irish Water. Yes. They were angry. And yes, the claimed it was a peaceful protest.

Only it wasn’t a peaceful protest. Look at the video footage and the provocative ‘in-yer-face’ taunting and baiting of the Gardaí, and the disgusting nasty insidious language that is used. Just by shouting Peaceful Protest into the face of a guard doesn’t mean it is actually a peaceful protest. You can be intimidating and violent without lifting a hand.

Now, the first thing that has to be said is this. Those using those highly disruptive tactics, beyond acceptability in this society, and hovering on the borderline of legality, are not representative of the broader movement against water chargers.

The former journalist from this newspaper, Ciaran Tierney, has a very good article on this in his latest online blog.

As he points out – and as some prominent anti-water protesters have told me privately – such carry-on actually damages the campaign because it alienates middle-of-the-road households who don’t like water charges, but neither do they like that kind of nasty confrontation.

The kind of behaviour is on the extreme. In more general terms, water charges have created a split in society.

One side is compliant. On the other side is complaint. And water is not the only issue that divides the two sides.

You could draw a line between them on property charges, USC, the Troika, bank debt, recapitalisation, and the authority of the current Government.

And while the rebels may be slightly smaller in number than, say, last year… they are still there and are not going anywhere fast.

Last weekend, even after the PR disaster of that video, anti-water protests around the country (less well organised that the pre-Christmas ones) still managed to attract thousands of people.

On the other side, there was the other ready-reckoner on who was winning out on this issue; the number of households signed up to Irish Water before the February 2 deadline.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.