From top: Irish Water protest in Dublin city centre on Saturday; Dara Quigley
What I would have told the thousands at Saturday’s Right2Water rally.
By Dublin-born activist and blogger Dara Quigley (full text at link below)
Dara writes:
If it had been possible to blag my way past security and onto the Right2Water stage on Saturday, this is what I would have said:
“They said, when the water charges protest began, that it was a threat to democracy. As a human being, standing in front of a sea of humanity, it’s safe to say, they got that one wrong. We’re the ones saving democracy.
The government, the regime – they’d love to take voices, like mine, out of the equation. Voices at the sharp edge of austerity, voices at the sharp edge of a thousand economic cuts.
Let me save them some trouble. Tonight, I’ll be sleeping in a psychiatric hospital. Up until two months ago, I was dependent on methadone.
I’ve spent most of my life being controlled in one way or another.But, that does not make what I have to say any less important, any less valid or any less legitimate than what comes out of the mouths of the clowns and failed school teachers currently playing at being leaders.
They aren’t even a government. They are a glorified press department for EU officials, civil servants and insiders who operate under a veil of secrecy. Vulture funds and multinationals who operate in a protected environment of shadow economies and brass plates.
But we are seeing through the smoke and mirrors to what lies beneath.
The government, NTMA and NAMA have the cheek to tell us that they are acting in the best interests of the taxpayer. Which taxpayers? Because the people benefiting the most don’t seem to be paying much, if any, tax or contributing anything to this society.
We have a state broadcaster RTÉ, the R must stand for Regime because the state is the people.
RTÉ is outsourcing its responsibilities to the BBC. It took the BBC highlighting money bags changing hands to expose the corruption of NAMA. Selling our country off to vulture funds for the benefit of a select few….
…Natural diamonds are formed under extreme pressure and time. This regime has created a generation of diamonds who sparkle because of their flaws, not in spite of them. Diamonds are also tough and if you think feet on the street scare this government, voting terrifies them.
It’s time to take our responsibilities as citizens seriously. I’ve been to hell and back but the devil met his match and there is nothing in any of this to be afraid of, unless you have something to lose and that isn’t anybody standing here today.
…I know how much voting terrifies this government, I tried to collect more than one voter registration form at Rathmines Garda station. I was told it’s limited to one per person, this is simply not true. Who are the Gardaí protecting by limiting voter registration forms? Certainly not the citizens.
We are taught, from an early age, to fear revolution, we are told it leads to civil war. Does this feel like civil war to you?
Or does it feel like fun? Have some fun, report these crimes, march on your local station to register your whole area to vote and get out next Saturday for Repeal the Eighth march in Dublin.
Our economy and society is modeled on the behaviour of pigeons, survival of the fittest, everybody out for themselves.
The reality is more complex and beautiful than this regime can possibly imagine. In reality, we are more like a flock of starlings, producing intricate, amazing patterns all arising from one fundamental rule: no one bird is allowed to get lost.
This is the type of society I want to see, where no one person is allowed to fall between the cracks, nobody gets lost and no person is homeless. Jobstown are innocent.
Sparkle like the natural diamonds you are.”
Pic: Dara
Pigeons, Devils, Starlings, Diamonds…. Its all there.
Are we supposed to mark it?
>We have a state broadcaster RTÉ, the R must stand for Regime because the state is the people.
Lol.
not much about the water charges there
“The regime”
Lol you male genital.
This is going to get pulled apart which can’t be good for someone in a psychiatric hospital.
Not sure you should have published Broadsheet
I agree. I’ve been feeling a bit bad about my comment which was slightly mean and I get the feeling the writer of this piece is watching.
At least she can spell, more than I managed.
“This is going to get pulled apart which can’t be good for someone in a psychiatric hospital.”
And you’re the one to kick it off.
I imagine you as a white middle aged undereducated taxi driver.
aw, you’re imagining me :-)
I was hoping more for a BBC from Tallagh?
BBC as in from porn?
cos you might be right!
I agree. Hardly responsible journalism (eh.. bloggerism, or whatever this is called)
We have to silence all such people.
For their own sake.
Harry, you’re a legit skumbag.
Another dependent on the state complaining that big companies don’t pay more tax to give her more shekels , yawn.
Maybe if water protestors went and got jobs, they could afford the water charges, as we are the only country in europe not paying for water.
Just sounds like another dodgy PbP/AAA/Feminist Agenda press release. Good luck, capitalism won again, like it always does. Bet of luck staying off the gear.
You’re saying Irish Water as it currently exists represents a win? No wonder you had to bury that under random insults and buzzwords.
Maybe if water protestors went and got jobs, they could afford the water charges, as we are the only country in europe not paying for water.
Is retro trolling a thing now?
I hear Nintendo and Sega are in talks to release it as a 16 bit
If you’re feeling so bad why don’t you stop going on about yourself and apologise for your smelly comment?
“….activist and blogger….”
I’m out.
If only.
Well if we can afford to give Apple 13 Billion and bale out Banks for 64 Billion
how come we have a Water Tax in a country awash with water, and given that
its paid for in Road Tax and VAT with almost 40 years already.
As for RTE wind it up and close it down, its an outfit populated with muppets and
puppets.
Re: RTÉ .!.
Tearing it down also means having something else to replace it with?
There is a lovely sparkle in what she thinks.
I love her vision for a utopia where 95% of all public spending is for social welfare to save the sewer life of humanity.
Vile remark….you’re one starling I think we can leave behind
@daquigles Aug 15 – You sent me to school with a cup a soup for lunch.
We have to pay for water.
We have to pay for the State to keep our water supply clean and secure and well maintained.
Not a company.
Everyone has to pay, not some, not at an artificially high cost, and the work has to be done by the councils, well and normally and paid for by the State, and not by a quango or a private company making a profit.
I feel like I’m being judged when reading that. Recommended listening: Joy Division – She’s Lost Control
You are being judged
She’s clearly a cultural marxist… won’t be happy until the govt employs and guarantees everyone a job.
Nutters full of utopia notions but couldn’t organise a pissing party in a public loo.
Ireland’s SJW’s are on the rise, bunch of morons most of ’em. Only good for protest, no good for what comes after.
“They said, when the water charges protest began, that it was a threat to democracy.” – Who is they? I’ve never heard anyone say this….. you said this, to justify your claim to save democracy.
The RTE bit is laughable. The BBC being held up as some great big effort for the public…. nothing more deluded. The BBC is the UK version of RTE.
Was Enda a “failed school teacher”? Where’d you get that from? I heard he was good at it. I don’t like the guy, but I don’t make stuff up about him. That’s what SJWs do when they don’t have an argument.
“It’s time to take our responsibilities as citizens seriously.” …you mean, you recognise it’s time you did. Most of the people I know have been since before you got your act together – and on that, a fantastic well done! I went through similar myself. Just don’t use that experience for victim points the way feminism teaches people to do – it’s counter to a healthy recovery.
The Gardaí anecdote, is just that, an anecdote. Please don’t turn it into some conspiracy, you make yourself sound like a loon. By the way… there’s not a single democratically elected government on the planet that is not afraid of elections, if they weren’t what would be the point? A govt afraid of elections is what is necessary, a cocky govt is not, which is what you appear to want. An idiotic rant if ever there was one.
“We are taught, from an early age, to fear revolution, we are told it leads to civil war. Does this feel like civil war to you?
Or does it feel like fun?”
Revolution isn’t fun, and it is only typical uninspired rhetoric by SJW couch protestors, and their sweeping empty moronic comments about revolution.
“Have some fun, report these crimes, march on your local station to register your whole area to vote” Why would you ‘march’ for something that you are not being inhibited from doing… this is even more idiotic the more I read it. Complete nonsense.
We all espouse utopian dreams, but in a real world, most of us don’t strive for the impossible, because to do so ends in depression frustration and the eventual realisation that not everyones utopia is the same, and to force our utopia on others…. well, it’s just not cricket, it’s not playing fair. In my utopia, there is no religion. Imagine if I tried to force that on everyone. Utopias are not reality, and attempts at stringing words together to paint fancy picture of your utopia doesn’t make them any more achievable.
This is the only bit that has any sense to it and there’s nothing new in this, the whole country knows and is mad at this… “The government, NTMA and NAMA have the cheek to tell us that they are acting in the best interests of the taxpayer. Which taxpayers? Because the people benefiting the most don’t seem to be paying much, if any, tax or contributing anything to this society.”
I admire your desire to improve society, but this is just a load of hot air. If you had spoken at the march, you’d be just mouthing off like most SJWs with nothing new or inspiring brought to the table. Good luck in your fight or quest or whatever !
The professional managerial class are helping Dara now.
> Jobstown are innocent?
Probably, mostly. But the whole area? I somehow doubt it.