62 thoughts on “The Shirt Off Our Backs”

  2. Bacchus

    Paul Murphy had tweeted earlier “Joan Burton blocked in by peaceful protesters in Jobstown” which shows a pi$$ poor grasp of either reality or English.

          1. Alfred E. Neumann

            Can we not be embarrassed in a democracy? I only ask because I have this friend who’s been having a little bedroom trouble. Nothing serious, God no, just a one-off – or a one not-off, ha ha. Anyways. Blushing is for Stalinists or something. Right?

  4. Soundings

    Paul Murphy might have been left topless, but this Govt has been left birthday suit starkers.

    Practically every adult in this country has been liable for water charges for over six weeks, and not a single one knows what they’ll have to pay. Gross incompetence on such a scale demands gross outrage, let’s have a general election at the start of January.

    2. Spaghetti Hoop

      I’ve had an issue with your second point also; I’ve written again to IW about this and requested a copy of their customer charter re charging without an agreed fixed rate. The deadline for subscription also remains at Nov 30 – yet terms are still in negotiation. This has to be the worst f-up in new utility roll-outs for those admin blunders alone.

      1. Soundings

        + 100 or 176 or “under 200” or 240 or 278 or 450 or 1000 (aaah, just pull a number out of your arse- the Irish Water method as it’s known).

        1. Spaghetti Hoop

          Exactly. We’ve been charged for 46 days of usage with no terms, no rates, no meter (some, not all) and no government commitment to a customer charter or non- profit pledge. Ombudsman?

  5. myownself

    The Indo now have a badly photoshopped image of ‘a rioter’ throwing a brick at the back of a garda car on the webpage with Jobstown (Jobestown) spelt incorrectly in the tagline.

    2. Walter-Ego

      Unfortunately it wasn’t photoshopped. There is an actual video of the incident where the idiot falls flat on his arse after he throws the brick. We need to keep these protests peaceful. Otherwise the Government will use it against us.

    1. Zarathustra

      Baccus, at least the Journal.ie commenters on BS are ‘only’ [sic] condoning abusive behaviour towards the Tánaiste, while she was relatively safe in her car after attending a graduation ceremony; if you visit the Journal comments section, you can read nasty, misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, anti-LGBT, pro Sinn Féin, and pro rape comments, all within the space of a few minutes… not to mention the individuals with multiple accounts who like to stalk other peoples’ twitter/FB profiles, just to further their own pathetic agenda. It truly is a lesson in behavioural psychology.

      1. Hashtag Diversity

        You mean just like Senator Katherine “Unvouched for 30K Seanad Expenses” Zappone’s new found interest in the water issue as a way to appealing to the commoner to vote for same sex marriage?

      2. linbinius

        @ Zarathustra

        Were you working on your thesis while compiling this list of comment section villains?

        People really need to stop elevating the stature of this comment section by snootily dismissing the journals unedited and uncensored one. It is the posts (no, not those ones) and the comments perceived to be broadsheet worthy that make it a bookmark for me anyway.

        It really has bred a weird insular community that, for the most part, i agree with but sometimes gets so far up its ar8e it becomes disheartening.

  8. Original Cynic

    Not a penny collected by Irish Water to date. How many borrowed € millions (to be paid back by the taxpayer) for salaries, bonuses, consultants, PR people and Garda overtime?

  12. anonanomanom

    Paul Murphy is a, il protest anything as long i get in a newspaper, TD. He does not care who votes for him once he gets elected.

      1. bob

        What makes you think I am a flunkey? Presumptuous much?
        How do you know I’m not just a normal hard working tax payer who, while seriously dissatisfied with the injustice that prevails in Irish society, doesn’t want to live in a country where thuggish tactics like terrorising women and flinging bricks at cops is seen as acceptable?

        3. Mike

          Yeah but guy, really, “Joan should cut off their dole”… It’s pretty moronic. Think outside the box a little!

    1. H

      My favourite bit was when the woman shouted ‘This is a peaceful protest!’ and a banner comes flying over just after she finishes speaking.

  15. CousinJack

    This is a peaceful protest by the standards of most western democracies, its only far right states like Russia and USA where such protests would be considered extreme

  16. macGafraidh

    To be honest, I believe this was a peaceful protest initially, if you look at the previous videos. I believe it became a less than peaceful protest after the protesters decided to implement some form of civil disobedience by sitting on the ground linking arms. This is when the ‘Gardai’ decided to be unacceptably heavy handed. The ‘Gardai’ are inciting anger and I would happily go to protest, not necessarily just at the charges but at the fact that the ‘Gardai’ have shown complete lack of consideration for civilians throughout this whole thing. This whole debacle has changed my views immensely and all respect has been lost. The government need to pull their heads from their arses and see the light of day, this has and will continue to spiral out of control until decisions are made, it’s not difficult, this has been in the making the past few years, how are they still at a loss as to how this will operate?! .. Am I on my own here or would anyone agree even in the slightest?

      1. macGafraidh

        My personal opinion is as follows: the Gardai are so called because they are guardians of the people. I wouldn’t tar them all with the same brush and up until now I most certainly wouldn’t have had a negative thing to say about them .. however .. I have to question whether it was necessary for the Gardai to be so heavy handed toward the lads when they sat down. Where there is no real threat to an individual or the situation as a whole by the individuals seated on the ground, I would question the necessity of the physical intervention of the Gardai. As seen, there were individuals there with a mindset of hurt / damage to herself or the vehicle. Each individual sat on the ground has a right to a peaceful protest. Why was this physically obstructed by the people who are supposedly there to guard them?

        1. DoM

          If you’re physically restricting someone’s freedom in the way these protesters were it can’t possibly be peaceful. If someone who is the target of so much aggression is being forcefully kept in a stationary car then there’s obviously “real threat to an individual”.

          Please don’t tell me you can’t see how obvious this is?

          (No fan of Labour all the same – lied through their teeth to get elected and will be deservedly wiped out in the next election).

    2. Alfred E. Neumann

      I would partly agree with you. This has been an absolute disaster for the government, badly done in almost every way. It’s so bad it makes the things we previously let them away with look even worst in retrospect – the roll-back on the €200,000 pay cap, the continued relationship with Denis O’Brien, the insufficient action on TD pay and pensions. I hoped when Alan Kelly took over they would find a way to pull the plug entirely, abolish IW, and defer any charge until the infrastructure is fixed. I don’t think capping the charge will cut it, not when any of the money is going to pay huge wages to incompetents.

      Obviously there are some protesters who have no intention of staying peaceful. Blocking someone’s car for two hours is unacceptable, as is chucking bricks and placards. Anyone who trusts the Gardaí to police a protest (or anything else) hasn’t opened a newspaper for at least a decade, but what I see is a surprising amount of restraint and professionalism. There is no shortage of cameras, as we’ve been told. If there was police brutality we would have seen it.

  17. The Insight

    Paul Murphy is a smoked salmon socialist. He’ll say or do anything to get a vote to keep him in his comfortable lifestyle. He’s so far removed from the people he purports to represent it’s laughable.

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