Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Five years older and deeper in debt... So why don't the Irish protest more?

In the last few years, there’s been a noticeable decrease in the numbers taking to the streets to voice their anger. We asked the experts — why are the Irish so reluctant to protest?

TOMORROW MARKS THE five year anniversary of the announcement of the bank guarantee. Just two weeks after that blanket €440 billion guarantee of all liabilities in the banking system, we had the first of the austerity budgets — prompting some 25,000 people  (mostly students and pensioners) to take to the streets and protest outside Leinster House.

In the intervening years, we’ve experienced a number of large-scale trade union-led demonstrations — with over 100,000 turning out for two ‘days of action’ in 2009 and 2010. Smaller protests — by students, farmers, carers and anti-property tax campaigners — are also, by now, a regular feature of Irish life.

However, as the effects of ‘recession fatigue’ have taken hold in recent years, there’s been fewer and fewer people taking to the streets. Over five thousand signed-up via social media for a protest to ‘lock the Government out of the Dáil’ earlier this month — but on the day, just a few hundred turned out.

Elsewhere in Europe — Iceland for instance — sustained weekly public protests led to the collapse of governments. There’s also been massive social unrest in Turkey, Greece and Spain – to name a few. Egypt even made time for two revolutions.

So — why don’t the Irish protest more?

Well, as you might imagine — there are no simple answers. TheJournal.ie has been speaking with an economist, a youth campaigner, a left-wing MEP and an expert in political and economic geography….

THE ECONOMIST

Tom O’Connor lectures in economics and public policy at CIT and is the author of a forthcoming book ‘The Soul of Irish Indifference’…

First of all, you know, there’s no one factor on its own that can explain it. There’s a whole combination of factors — but when taken together they give quite a powerful explanation.

I’ve looked at attitudes to welfare and the welfare state and what kind of people we were before the Celtic Tiger — and then used the statistics from that to see what way we were likely to react during austerity. There are five or six fairly big studies done on the area, and basically what the results show is that though Irish society does have people who are kind-of radical, many are more self-centred, and they don’t look to the government for solutions — they just get on with their own lives.

I’ll just give you an example: in 2006, 79 per cent of the Irish population said there should be some restriction on immigrants, which is generally viewed as a kind of self-centred, kind of a right-wing view. 73 per cent said that taxes should be kept low even if it means more inequality. 70 per cent then believe that the wealthy should be allowed pass on their own wealth without having to pay any taxes on it.

image

Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae is heckled by protesters at the ‘Dáil Lockout’ protest earlier this month [Photocall Ireland]

The Irish mindset

The Irish psyche, you know, really goes back at least to the famine…

There was a class of people — a relatively thin stratum of our society — who did well after the famine. They realised that being totally self-centred as a class and being totally focused on their own affluence — that that was the way to go. When they came into independence, this class of people were modelling a type of government which was about looking after certain sections of Irish society, and not really about a proper welfare state.

Ordinary people in the street saw that you had to be a ‘cute hoor’: look after yourself; go to you local politician if you want to get planning… They saw subsequently that those people who were well in with Fianna Fáil in the building industry did well, or that farmers who were close to Fine Gael did well. They created over decades this type of behaviour which was being called ‘sleveenism’ or ‘gombeenism’ or whatever, and that has brought us to where we are — so if you want to look after what you have, you vote. It was very easy to turn the Irish, the teachers and all the rest of them around on Haddington Road — because you look after what you have, and protesting doesn’t get you any money.

Trade unions

The trade union movement has been a major factor in the maintenance of the status quo. The reality is that there is no organisation in the country that can mobilise sufficient numbers of people to actually protest other than the trade union movement. Protests — such as they have been since the end of the Celtic Tiger or since the austerity started — if they muster four or five thousand people amongst a coalition of anti-water-charges or anti-household-tax people or whatever that would be a big protest. That’s just too small — and what the unions have tended to do is just flex their muscles, have one or two major rallies, show a bit of strength and then send people home.

image

A student fees protest in November 2011 [Marc Stedman/Photocall Ireland]

THE CAMPAIGNER

Ruairí McKiernan is a youth and social change campaigner, who founded the advice website SpunOut.ie. He is also a member of the Council of State

There’s no one easy answer as to why we haven’t seen ongoing mass protests.

There are so many factors at play, including many Irish people putting their faith in Fine Gael and Labour at the last election. The unions are a traditional source of protest power but they’ve been focused on the likes of the Croke Park agreement — whereas the left wing parties are too small or don’t appeal to the masses for whatever reason. The emigration of 300,000 people over the last four years is a factor, as is the weakness of civic society organisations and their reluctance to speak out for fear of losing funding.

Fear is at the heart of inaction, fear that if we rock the boat we’ll be ridiculed, isolated or punished in some way. Too often protest is seen or made to be seen as something done by hippies, lefties or some sort of rent-a-crowd rather than as an important tactic used for generations by people like Daniel O’Connell, James Larkin, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Mary Robinson and Michael D Higgins.

image

Protesters from Occupy Dame Street confront IMF economist Johan Mathisen in April 2012 [Photocall Ireland]

Many of our rights and freedoms are the result of people giving up their time to campaign for the rights of all. Our culture and education system has taught obedience and conformity and critical thinking has been discouraged. Many Irish people feel beaten down and a lot of the anger is being internalised and dealt with through alcohol, depression and, sadly, through an increasing suicide rate.

As I said it’s a complex issue so it’s not black or white.

What can we learn from experience elsewhere?

I think the Icelandic people have gone a long way towards upholding their dignity as people. Their protests and movements may not have solved every problem but they have helped create major reforms and saved their economy from complete debt slavery. They can hold their head up high as a proud independent sovereign people.

image

The ‘Kitchenware Revolution’ in Iceland was instrumental in bringing down the administration that presided over the country’s 2008 financial meltdown [AP Photo/Brynjar Gauti]

The future

I do think Irish people are starting to question more and more and are beginning to speak out.

I think the culture is changing where we realise that we all need to play an active role if we are to have a democracy that puts our interests before those of bankers and investors. Young people who have observed the work of Wikileaks, Manning and Snowden realise that radical change is needed. The next step has to be finding better ways of coming together, of joining forces to work on issues of common concern. We have to reclaim power as individuals, as communities and as a nation or we will continue to be walked on and lied to.

It’s a huge challenge but I believe we can do it if we choose to wake up and claim our power.

image

ICTU President Jack O’Connor speaks at a major union-led demonstration in November 2010 [Photocall Ireland]

The MEP

Paul Murphy is a Socialist Party MEP for Dublin…

I think it is explainable and quite explainable the levels of protest in Ireland relative to Greece or Spain or whatever.

I think there’s a number of different factors but I think the most important factor, and its pretty dominant I’d say, is the question of the role of the trade union leadership in Ireland. We did have two very significant protests called by ICTU which then went nowhere. They went into Croke Park 2 and Haddington Road which amounted to defeat for people — for working class people who were opposed to austerity.

The key question is why there hasn’t been leadership by those who are meant to lead, who have the responsibility of leadership.

The end of the Celtic Tiger

Well I think there definitely was a major shock factor [when the recession started].

It was a very big change from the Celtic Tiger to a very significant and deep crisis. Certainly, because of the Celtic Tiger many people would have hoped that ‘okay it’s going to be bad but hopefully we can quickly get out of it’.

At this stage I think that the shock factor is gone. Clearly we’re five years, five to six years really into the crisis. The main point I’d make is that, ultimately bad leadership by the trade union leaders will not be capable of stopping big protests happening. People are opposed to austerity.

Is the situation likely to change?

I think the most important way it will change is by people themselves moving to a situation of understanding that austerity has failed from the point of view of the majority of ordinary people, and it has worked from the point of view of the one percent in our society — the bond holders, the rich and so on.

image

Chris Malendewicz, who secured himself with a crook lock to a radiator in the Tax office on O’Connell Street in protest over the property tax back in May [Photocall Ireland]

We’re getting to a point where the people, the majority of people, feel the need to mobilise — I think you saw a little glimpse of that, without very huge protests on the streets, but nonetheless with massive participation and a certain element of protest on the streets, in the movement against the household tax for example. You did have fifteen/twenty thousand people protesting on a couple of occasions. I think it’s very difficult to say right now what will be the turning point that will mobilise a lot of people again, but I think it’s very difficult to see such a turning point not coming. It could be around the budget or it could be next year.

I think the Government is likely to exit the bailout at the end of this year, but things aren’t going to get any better and in reality we will be in a sort-of second bailout. When that becomes clear to people, I think that can be an important turning point.

THE POLITICAL/ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY EXPERT

Rory Hearne is a lecturer in political & economic geography at NUI Maynooth and a community worker…

I think primarily it is an issue of a lack of leadership from trade unions, left political parties and civil society such as community groups, charities and NGOs. If we look at other countries like Iceland, Greece and Spain, these groups have played a key role in mobilising large numbers of people in protests.

image

Meath man Tony Rochford, who staged a hunger strike over the property tax earlier this year [Photocall Ireland]

I think the model of social partnership that dominated the way these groups interacted with the Government and the state through the Celtic Tiger means that they are now reluctant to be publicly critical and they have been incorporated into submission by the Irish State. I also think that there has been a lack of alternative strategies to austerity up until more recently, which has meant people are confused about what to protest for. Finally I think a lot of people had an expectation that the Labour/Fine Gael government would burn the bondholders and change things, and the trade unions are reluctant to protest against the Labour Party in Government.

The Iceland example

I think we can look at Iceland and see that they have got debt forgiveness at a national and household level. Huge numbers of people have had their mortgages written down.

That’s because they protested and forced their government to do it. Similarly, in Greece, the country got a write down on its debt because the Greek people would not accept austerity. We can also learn from protest at home -from the parents who protested against the Special Needs Assistants cuts, the people who marched to save our forests, and the elderly who stopped their medical cards being taken away. The political class in this country doesn’t like people protesting in large numbers and it shows we have a power to change things if we want to.

image

Middle Ireland on the March: On 31 August last, Charlie Allen of the Rodolphus Trust led about 250 people in a bid to retake the Kennycourt Stud Farm in Kildare from receivers acting for the IBRC [Photocall Ireland]

Change?

I think that there is change taking place. How can it not? Young people are facing unemployment rates of 30 per cent and thousands are emigrating. There is no job security any more. New public servants are on a lower wage. Rents are massively inflated again and people can’t access mortgages. That’s not to mention the illegimate debt that has been placed on our shoulders.

The left significantly increased its vote in the last election, but then Labour went into government and the opportunity of a left-led opposition was lost. Sinn Féin and the ULA are likely to significantly increase their support in the next election. Will Sinn Féin do what Labour have done and squander another opportunity for fundamental change by going into Government with Fianna Fail or Fine Gael? I think young people have to stand up and demand more radical changes to this country.

Read: Bruton: Of course I’m worried about the emigration brain drain >

Also: The leader of Iceland’s ‘Kitchenware Revolution’ reckons we have a thing or two to learn about protests>

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
115 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dara O'Brien
    Favourite Dara O'Brien
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:36 PM

    Ah here, ye’re just making stuff up now lads.

    You’re either immune or not – immunity is not job specific. If you need healthcare workers back regardless then just say it, there’s a danger that people will start picking things up wrong if you just keep making stuff up.

    431
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute daveyt
    Favourite daveyt
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 11:15 PM

    @Dara O’Brien: all they care about is the rosters in hospitals being filled, if a healthcare worker who has been infected and re-exposed via close contact (which is very likely) they don’t have to quarantine themselves for 2 weeks and the hospital can function as normal, no science behind it just ignorance

    98
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seán O'Sullivan
    Favourite Seán O'Sullivan
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 12:57 AM

    @daveyt: not exact science no but calculated risk based on science

    11
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sean Gallagher
    Favourite Sean Gallagher
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 3:00 AM

    @Seán O’Sullivan: telling people they are immune is NOT a calculated risk. Either you have a scientific basis for saying it or not. If they do, then it extends to everyone. If they don’t it’s utter nonsense and should be withdrawn. Health care workers are just as likely to catch it on close contact as everyone else. They also happen to be more likely to come into contact with it.

    It’s utterly disingenuous to make it one rule for one and not for others. I sincerely hope the unions get involved at this point and call b*llsh*t as they should.

    This advice could endanger health care workers, their families and anyone else the come into contact with, including their patients.

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute William Bryan
    Favourite William Bryan
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 2:27 PM

    @daveyt: happened where I worked, positive result from one staff, the rest of ye keep working its a grey area

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute a politicians promise is as good as a lie
    Favourite a politicians promise is as good as a lie
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:46 PM

    What a load of bollox..just like the 2, 5 and soon 20 km limits all makey up… To hear simple Simon on the radio when asked about should the 20km limit be skipped and allowed people travel everywhere he said he felt it in his gut it was the wrong time…. No scientific evidence to back these travel restrictions

    164
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gavin Conran
    Favourite Gavin Conran
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 11:02 PM

    @a politicians promise is as good as a lie: The 2, 5 and 20km limits are to contain clusters. If there is an outbreak during the 5km limit, then, if everyone is staying inside their areas, it should be contained and make the trace work a lot easier.

    This immunity thing though I cant make heads or tails of.

    65
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Martin Woods
    Favourite Martin Woods
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 5:31 AM

    @Gavin Conran: but you can travel any amount of kilometres to work so that throws your thinking out the window

    25
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Doyle
    Favourite John Doyle
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 8:08 AM

    @a politicians promise is as good as a lie: “no scientific evidence” did you not read that he feels it in his gut?

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ValerieSP
    Favourite ValerieSP
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 6:34 PM

    @a politicians promise is as good as a lie: really? How do you know the Scientific evidence or perhaps you are in fact a Scientist in which case your comment just might be viable

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ValerieSP
    Favourite ValerieSP
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 6:38 PM

    @a politicians promise is as good as a lie: what’s with the Simple Simon?? Not nice and unhelpful

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anthony Whelan
    Favourite Anthony Whelan
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:56 PM

    Just now on the tonight show Prof Paul Moynagh (maynooth) says tests should have cost €15 each . Our boys (who some think are playing a blinder) are paying €200 per test.

    88
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Daniel Dunne
    Favourite Daniel Dunne
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 11:01 PM

    @Anthony Whelan: It’s easy to spend other people’s money when you’re the government.

    67
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cormac Laffan
    Favourite Cormac Laffan
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 7:11 AM

    @Anthony Whelan: It’s the same crowd we booted out of office, doing the same thing we booted them out for.
    #OurLivesMatter

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Daniel Dunne
    Favourite Daniel Dunne
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:59 PM

    Clever coronavirus knows if you’re a healthcare worker or not. It also knows if you were protesting on Monday or not. Magic.

    66
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lydia McLoughlin
    Favourite Lydia McLoughlin
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 11:08 PM

    And this is why the general population will start to do their own thing.. making it up as they go along!

    60
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Adam Conroy
    Favourite Adam Conroy
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 12:12 AM

    This makes no sense. Are they just making this stuff up as they go along?

    31
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute EvieXVI
    Favourite EvieXVI
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:44 PM

    Enough already!!! The immune system of healthcare workers is the same as that of non-healthcare workers. Please stop treating people like idiots.

    168
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Isabel Oliveira
    Favourite Isabel Oliveira
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 12:35 AM

    Yeah .. if only healthcare staff lived 24/7 in hospitals and couldn’t infect the community and patients if only they had magical powers not to fall ill and suffer themselves . What in the name of Christ is wrong with the CMO, the HSE and the government ? Criminal !

    35
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Martin Harte
    Favourite Martin Harte
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:44 PM

    Acting the fu€k now so they are

    84
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe
    Favourite Joe
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:56 PM

    WTF

    43
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Oracle Steve
    Favourite Oracle Steve
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 11:13 PM

    Pure clowns

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kartz
    Favourite Kartz
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 9:50 AM

    So in Ireland, the CMO has discretionary powers to decide who can become immune and who cannot!

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Davy MacIomhair
    Favourite Davy MacIomhair
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 8:16 AM

    Absolute horse sh!t. I’m a nurse, I know of more than one staff member who tested positive, recovered, then tested positive a second time and was considerably sicker second time round.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gill James
    Favourite Gill James
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 3:33 PM

    @Davy MacIomhair: I wonder if Covid 19 perhaps behaves in the same way that Borrelia aka Lyme disease sometimes does. Goes to ground in the body’s organs and is then no longer detectable in the blood – regularly shapeshifting and creating a biofilm to evade the immune system , so that even after extended oral antibiotic treatment and a subsequent blood test which proves negative – waves of various symptoms recur and sometimes to a serious degree for years.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute joan kelly
    Favourite joan kelly
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 1:23 AM

    The world and his mother has gone nuts

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Agenda21
    Favourite Agenda21
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 2:59 AM

    @joan kelly: gone to hell in a hand basket

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute 8-Bit-Relic
    Favourite 8-Bit-Relic
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:45 PM

    *hust*bullshit*hust*

    38
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute William Bryan
    Favourite William Bryan
    Report
    Jun 4th 2020, 2:25 PM

    Heard it all now as a Health care worker, this alarms me but now the grey area is explained, Health care workers are now deemed as collateral damage, they are really clueless, BTW only have sex with one close contact, Tony says

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Noel Healy
    Favourite Noel Healy
    Report
    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:43 PM

    Christ!!!! The cracks are showing with poor old Dr Tony. So healthcare staff aren’t part of the general population now? The old power has his brain fried.

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds