Madam, – We live outside the Pale and represent a cross-section of Irish society. We would have loved to be at the GPO last Saturday, but the weather gods were against us. We do feel that at this moment in Ireland it is critically important to have our voices heard. The model of protest centred in Dublin needs to be expanded. We are proposing that a nationwide day of action takes place in every village, town and city simultaneously across Ireland.
We fully support Fintan O'Toole and his energy and the need to fully reflect the physical, emotional, psychological and financial impact on the nation within our communities. The people of Ireland need to feel empowered. Can you imagine how many people would turn out in their localities if a national initiative was launched on a specified date by The Irish Times?– Yours, etc,
Madam, – I am fascinated that people would march to the drum of David Begg and Jack O’Connor given that both men were hand-in- glove with the Government that brought about the situation against which they were protesting. Why is it that the font of wisdom, Fintan O’Toole (master of ceremonies at the rally) could not appreciate the irony of the situation? Maybe one of the features of his new republic should be a very small dollop of consistency. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – While I think it’s fantastic that the people should gather en masse on the streets of Dublin to express their rage at the Government, banks or developers, I would ask them to next time reconsider going out on a march organised by Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Why? Because Ictu has no moral authority to criticise the Government when it has also been partly responsible for the bust. By organising Saturday’s march the unions get to masquerade as the good guys in all this, get to hide behind their left-wing rhetoric while irate people point the finger elsewhere – at the Government, the banks, property developers – at just about every powerful entity except for the unions. This infuriates me.
During the boom and beyond, the unions drove the cost of public spending sky high, drove wages too high, caused huge inflation, made Ireland less competitive internationally, as they paid many – including themselves – too much, feathering their own nests at the expense of others. And God forbid the government that tries to implement policy and gets in their way because they’ll strike and hold the entire country to ransom.
Perhaps this is naive on my part, but I would ask Irish people to organise their own protest march to the GPO next time. Because Ictu asking the Irish people to come out in their thousands should have almost as little credibility as Sean FitzPatrick doing so. – Yours, etc,
ANDREW MOYNIHAN,
Cullenswood,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
A chara, – I, with my family and tens of thousands of like-minded people, took part on Saturday’s march in protest at the Government’s planned austerity programme.
We could feel the sense of solidarity among the people, but when listening to Ictu general secretary David Begg, I felt very annoyed and aggrieved. He and the various heads within the trade union leadership have let me down.
The union leadership has been co-operating with this Government for many years and has made hay with their memberships of quangos and suchlike. They pay huge salaries to themselves. I wanted to hear from Mr Begg that they too would cap their salaries, but I heard the same mantra from him. It is time for change at the top of the union leadership – and soon. – Is mise,
PAUL DORAN,
Monastery Walk,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.