Irish Examiner view: Public sector strike highlights lack of decisive leadership
ASTI, TUI, and Fórsa members — including 'Irish Examiner' columnist Jennifer Horgan, left — picketing at Cork Educate Together Secondary School (temporarily based at Griffith College, Cork) during the public sector strike on Wednesday. Picture: Larry Cummins
Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers on the picket line is something we haven’t witnessed in recent times. For those who were not involved directly in the strike on Wednesday, the markers of such a large-scale work stoppage were visible everywhere, such as a distinct lack of morning traffic at the traditional rush hour due to the schools being closed.
Health appointments, libraries, driving tests: The range of cancellations and closures was wide and deep.
One obvious question to be asked this morning is this: How did we reach a point where so much of the country’s public operations came to a halt?
The performance of the Government requires some scrutiny here, as there are discomfiting parallels with another large-scale shutdown earlier this year when fuel protests paralysed swathes of the country.
Both situations seemed to play out in a similar way, with the Government appearing to take sabre-rattling by representatives of significant sectors of the economy very lightly.
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In neither case could ministers claim to have received no warnings that strikes and protests were going to occur, but in both cases there was a curiously passive approach from the Coalition.
Readers will recall that concessions were soon made to those leading the fuel protests, which was a lesson absorbed, no doubt, by those leading the public sector unions: Nothing leads to victory like direct action.
It could be argued that stoppages such as yesterday’s are all part of the theatre of industrial action, but the alternative view is that decisive government leadership could head off such action well in advance, particularly as substantive negotiations will be undertaken shortly anyway.
The impression given by the Government’s tendency to allow matters to drift, both with the public service and the fuel protests, is not encouraging.
When that is taken in conjunction with the leaking, sniping, and backbiting among Government members in relation to the recent budget, the sense that there is a lack of decisive leadership in the administration is difficult to shake.
The entire country was horrified by the news which came out of Waterford on Tuesday that there were multiple fatalities in a house fire.
That sense of horror was compounded by shock when it emerged that the house in question had been firebombed.
Philip and Kim English, and their sons Callum and Jayden, died in the fire, while two other children remain in a critical condition in hospital in Dublin.
Investigations continue in Waterford following the deaths, with gardaí launching a murder inquiry and conducting a number of searches in the city.
It has been widely reported that gardaí are investigating whether the arson attack was connected to a drug debt which someone close to Mr English may have owed, but which Mr English may have taken on subsequently.
What is beyond doubt is that there had been previous attempts to intimidate the family, who had repeatedly tried to be rehoused, with public representatives also seeking to help them.
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The deaths of four people, including two small children, is a terrible event in and of itself, and deepest condolences go to those directly affected by the tragedy.
The fact that those people were killed in a firebombing attack asks searching questions of our society, particularly if this was part of a pattern of intimidation.
Our values as a civil society are under threat from terror and lawlessness if such actions are not met with swift justice.
This case also has disturbing echoes of another terrible incident that occurred last December, when a four-year-old boy and his grand aunt were killed in a house fire in Offaly.
Such crimes cannot be tolerated in any civilised society, and they certainly cannot be normalised.
The full power of the gardaí must be brought to bear here to restore the rule of law.
recently came up with a list of the 100 best TV series of the 21st century and, contentious though such rankings tend to be, there was no great pushback against the show ranked number one: .
The series told the story of Walter White, a terminally ill science teacher who becomes a drug kingpin in order to leave money behind for his family.
One of the key motivations behind White’s transformation into a ruthless drug baron is, paradoxically, his devotion to his son Walter Jr, or Flynn, who suffers from cerebral palsy.
All of which is background to the sad news that broke this week about the death of RJ Mitte, the actor who played Walter Jr in the series.
Tributes have poured in for Mitte from many of his co-stars.
Bryan Cranston, who played his father in the show, wrote online: “I’m in deep despair as I write this tonight.
“RJ Mitte, my sweet son on has died... Born with cerebral palsy, he never — ever — allowed that challenge to be an excuse for anything.”
Cranston also pointed out that Mitte, who went on to other TV and film roles, had been a strong advocate for other performers with disabilities as well as engaging in philanthropy work that focused on disabled people.
“All that promise and potential now is such a loss,” Cranston wrote. “I’ll miss you son.”
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