Strike shows a country of two nations - Bus Éireann

WHEN Transport Minister Shane Ross prepared to appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Transport yesterday, he had a choice of mode of transport: he could have taken a bus to Leinster House from his home or his constituency office in south Dublin or strolled the brisk walk from his department’s main office on Leeson Lane to Kildare Street. 

He could not, as yet, have enjoyed the comforts of the new Luas Cross City service. That particular pleasure will have to wait until December.

However, had he been visiting his department’s office in Loughrea, Co Galway, he would have had to either drive there and back, be driven by a chauffeur, hire a taxi, use a private bus or, like many of his fellow citizens are being forced to do, put out his thumb and hitch a lift to his place of work. The Minister for Transport would not have had access to public transport.

In reality, like other residents of Dublin and much of Leinster, Minister Ross was not too inconvenienced by the Bus Éireann strike, which now enters its seventh day.

It is little wonder, therefore, that there has been no clamour in Dublin about the strike. Even business organisations in the city are remaining generally silent, in contrast to last September when Dublin Chamber of Commerce warned of the negative consequences of successive strikes at Dublin Bus.

It is as if we are living in two separate countries — one almost paralysed by a so-called ‘nationwide’ public bus strike, the other blissfully ignorant of the pain being endured by their country cousins in Culchieland.

It is the same with water charges — an urban protest movement that totally ignores the fact that many rural dwellers have been paying for domestic water for years, without complaint.

Dublin and its hinterland is already far too dominant. According to last year’s Census figures, the population of the city and suburbs along with what is known as Outer Greater Dublin (Meath, Kildare and Wicklow) is 1,904,806. This equates to more than 40% of the Republic’s population.

The city and its hinterland already enjoys better transport, better infrastructure and far better communications — especially broadband — than the rest of the country. By ensuring that all roads lead to Dublin, the Government is perpetuating inequality.

It brings to mind remarks made by the 19th century British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli when he referred to his country’s “two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets”.

In the wake of Brexit, which was triggered yesterday, many Irish politicians have begun to speak again about bringing about a united Ireland, for economic as well as political reasons. But the reality is that we already have two nations in the south alone. This bus strike illustrates that the country is divided in more ways than one.