Ordinary Irish people in the ‘trenches’ are finally learning how to fight back

Have we learnt anything in the 100 years since the beginning of World War 1? I don’t think so. Maybe we are all materially more comfortable than we were in 1918, but many problems are the same.

The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. The people dictating economic policy are so removed from the trenches that they have forgotten what it’s like to be an ordinary person.

But something strange has happened in Ireland, recently.

Despite our reputation for being a nation of pacifists, we are not, for once, turning the other cheek and we are actually standing up and being counted.

The people who stood outside the GPO on O’Connell Street and the people who braved the wind and rain were ordinary citizens. They weren’t radicals or members of subversive groups; they were just ordinary people who had had enough.

I have no doubt that in the next couple of weeks we will get the much-promised clarity on water charges followed by threats, pleas and a barrage of reasons why we need to sacrifice more.

But hold on.

The troops are not responding and I can hear the ‘Last Post’ in the distance.

Richie Roche

Boghall Road

Bray

County Wicklow