With news that the Irish government were about to pass legislation that would bar non v****nated people from restaurants and pubs, an estimated crowd of at least 5,000 took to the streets of Dublin to surround the government at the Convention Centre into the early hours of the morning.
Despite covering similar protests in France, Cuba and Belarus in the same day, the Irish media instituted a blackout for apparent fear of increasing hostility against the government, considering that the government has worked closely with leftist journalists in the past decade. Many Irish journalists have showed little shame in happily accepting appointments as aides to government ministers in recent years.
The large crowd grew as the night wore on, with thousands chanting ‘shame on you’ at the Irish government, outside the rainbow lit temporary home of the Convention Centre. It costs the taxpayer €25,000 a day to keep sittings at the venue, even though the Dail is still available.
The tone of the protest was mostly jovial, with the crowd singing and dancing for hours on end.
Another protest is planned for tonight at Aras na Uchtarain, the residence of Irish President Michael D. Higgins. He is due to sign the measures into law, crowds are expected to gather at 7pm.
Higgins was elected in 2011 after state media carried out a smear job on front runner Sean Gallagher. Gallagher received a settlement of €130,000 over the dirty tactic, which told a large tv audience that Gallagher had engaged in questionable fundraising practices.
Higgins is a long time admirer of authoritarian regimes in Venezuela and Cuba as well as being photographed alongside George Soros and Chinese Communist Dictator Xi Jinping. In 2014, an Irish Times article referred to Higgins and Xi as ‘kindred spirits’.
Higgins has also specialised in propaganda that would make Xi blush, with schools stocking up heavily on copies of his children’s books, ‘The President’s Glasses’ and ‘The President’s Cat’, which interestingly gloss over his party giving those children a lifetime of IMG debt while Higgins collected a cool €250,000 a year.
It is not not yet clear if these protests will be sustainable given the level of deranged aggression and violence that was used by the Irish government to quell previous protests last winter.
At least however, the world is now watching. Even if Irish journalists choose not to.
