The protests in Ireland are not about just fuel! They are about the distance between Ireland on this graph and every other modern and developed economy. Ireland is second wealthiest but gets waaaaay less than any other country for that wealth. By a golden mile.
That visual gap in this graph? That’s what people are protesting. It’s a lack of infrastructure and the everyday enshittification of services, the economy, and the additional difficulty of trying to live, relative to peers in any other country. It also highlights why people don’t get uniformly listened to! - because there is no government architecture to engage meaningfully across this huge gap.
That gap is a three hour drive to work in traffic, a 14 month wait for an MRI, buses that don’t arrive, trains that don’t exist, schools that have no places for your kids, houses that are unaffordable, pubs that close before midnight, €12 sandwiches, expensive fuel.
People feel this gap, even if they can’t explain it precisely. And that builds into resentment, and ultimately protest. Fuel just happened to be the next thing that could be pointed to, today.
@NewstalkFM What’s his name ? What do you mean by stuck ? Did he have a puncture ? Where was he exactly ? How did he know everyone’s day was ruined ? I had a good day he didn’t ask me how my day went ?
Can’t remember the last time I was so angry
@DublinZoo you owe every single mother, woman and girl of Ireland an immediate apology for this shocking and disgraceful PR stunt
Apologise and delete it from your website. It’s an absolute national disgrace what you have just done
The Epstein email releases claim that Epstein's plane brought an underage girl to Ireland to be raped by "politicians and notable men".
Surely our decent aul regime politicians and parties wouldn't be at that sort of craic, right?
Let's review the facts:
- Gerry Adams knew of sexual abuse allegations against his brother for years before reporting it to authorities, allowing him to work in youth clubs across West Belfast for years after the abuse took place. In 2015, an Irish Sun investigation claimed to have uncovered a brothel operating a few floors above the then Louth TD's office in the Queen's Building in Dundalk, a former hotel used by former US president and Epstein associate Bill Clinton. Small world!
- Former Sinn Féin Senator and Belfast Mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile sent inappropriate messages to a 16 year old boy, then after being found out resigned due to "health reasons" and was given a glowing tribute by Sinn Féin as he left.
- Sinn Féin provided references to a former employee in their press office (Michael McMonagle) who was later convicted of child sex offences.
- Dublin City Cllr Anthony Flynn committed suicide after he was accused of allegedly raping at least two homeless men (drugging at least one of them) using his homeless charity.
- Former Independent Senator David Norris was in a relationship with Israeli man Ezra Nawi, who was convicted of statutory rape of a 15 year old Palestinian boy, whom Norris wrote a letter against claiming the boy had "set a trap" for his boyfriend. According to the Irish Times, Norris "seemed to be saying he did not believe in an age of consent; that prostitution and drugs should be legalised, and that pederasty (sex between a man and a boy), as practised by the ancient Greeks, was acceptable."
- Ex-Fianna Fáil Fermoy Town Mayor John Hussey sexually abused an 8 year old girl. - Ex-Fine Gael Cllrs have been accused of a number of disgusting offences, including: Possessing child sex abuse images/assisting illegal immigration contrary to the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act, 2000. (Bill Tormey, Dublin City); Indecent assault on underage boys (Philip Gillick, Dún Laoghaire), or; Stealing money from a charity to spend on crystal meth infused sex parties with male prostitutes (Seán McKiernan, Cavan).
- The Social Democrats' first openly gay Cllr, Owen Hanley, resigned from his Galway seat due to grooming allegations made against him online.
- Let's also not forget British "heroes" like Lord Mountbatten (Great Uncle of Prince Andrew, also accused of being on Epstein Island at the same time as the underage girl who was sex-trafficked to Ireland) who allegedly sexually abused young boys in the Kincora Boys School throughout the 1970s, with the case covered up by the British state.
- Former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson and his wife are currently facing sexual abuse charges spanning 21 years. The abuse allegedly beginning when the victim was just a child.
- Labour Cllr Pamela Kearns (Rathfarnham-Templeogue) publicly claimed that "babies do masturbate" and that "they get pleasure from it".
These are only the cases that have been uncovered by the way. Also worth noting that possession of child sex abuse images is practically an unpunished crime in modern Ireland due to sympathetic judges regularly imposing fully suspended sentences.
Anyone in Ireland who wants to point the finger at how blind the Americans must have been for letting politicians and influential members of society get away with sexually abusing children on an island for years... We have some very bad news for you.