I just could not help but think what the Sinn Fein response might be if the same type of question in relation to the Disappeared were to be asked of a potential candidate in the next Presidential election; if the eagerness to call out the cruel, heartless and calculated will vaporise in the rush for political advantage. I think I know the answer.
What Pearse Doherty was objecting to with every justification in language echoed by Brid Smith of People Before Profit -"dangerous, sad and brutal" - was the Varadkar-led government's decision to side with the landlords against the dispossessed by not extending the eviction ban, thus leaving people traumatised and terrified at the prospect of homelessness.
The charge against the Taoiseach came during a Dail debate on a Sinn Fein motion to halt the slide towards the abyss of homelessness by having the ban extended. Unfortunately the motion failed, leaving us to conclude that for now a majority of TDs still value profiteers over people.
Surprisingly Sinn Fein did not get a bounce in the latest Red C opinion poll. While Fianna Fail and the Greens slipped, Fine Gael increased its rating while Sinn Fein remained steady. This was the moment when the party could have expected to soar ahead but for some reason has not. And with Labour leader Ivana Bacik calling for a “left-led green-red government”, the voter might be left wondering where the green is going to come from. The Greens under Ryan seem destined to repeat their 2011 fall from grace and power.
With that in mind I was quite glad to see Eamon Ryan being given the what for when last Thursday he turned up at an event in Trinity College. Ryan's Green Party with the arrogance of the damned had suspended the one TD who displayed a flash of compassion on the eviction ban and he was not going to be allowed to forget it.
Ryan faced a barrage of highly charged political accusations in what my wife described as a wackamole strategy - as soon as one young person was pushed down another popped up - by protestors who included members of the Connolly Youth Movement which had previously faced their own eviction from a university campus for having challenged Bertie Ahern.
These young protestors are not blocking roads, or disrupting people's lives. They are not even denying others the right to hear people like Ryan or Ahern: they turn up, make their point and leave. They are risking their current education and future careers in a bid to stop others losing their homes.
These young protestors are not blocking roads, or disrupting people's lives. They are not even denying others the right to hear people like Ryan or Ahern: they turn up, make their point and leave. They are risking their current education and future careers in a bid to stop others losing their homes.
Politically and socially embarrassing for the agents of austerity, the young protestors can expect to find themselves subject to increased surveillance from people they consider foes and insidious endeavours from people they consider friends.
⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
No comments