It Occurs To Me: Government took too long to react as protests went on too long

It was all to do with timing.

The Government waited far too long to react to the fuel protests, and the protestors should have pulled the plug after a few days, as they’d made their point. In fact, they made it so forcibly that an emergency package of €505 million was eventually forthcoming, and don’t be fooled by the PR!

The Government spin is that the agreement was reached because they only dealt with hauliers’ and farmers’ leaders, and not protest representatives. They were scared stiff as they watched events unfold.

Mind you, I have some sympathy with the powers-that-be insofar as some of the protest ‘leaders’ were dodgy in the extreme. James Geoghegan’s woes have been well documented, in particular the 13 charges relating to animal cruelty in 2006 when 60 to 65 animals died on his farm in Westmeath during a 13-month period, but the other mouthpieces in the Dublin protest are well worth looking into.

Geoghegan, John Dallon and Christopher Duffy appeared on various social media channels of well-known far-right figures during last week.

British far-right activist, the obnoxious Tommy Robinson, began posting about the protest on X in a show of support – including re-sharing a video of army vehicles on the streets with a claim that the Government was “at war” with citizens. It’s no surprise to see Christopher Duffy involved.

In a comment some time ago about climate activist Greta Thunberg, he said: “I couldn’t care less if she got raped or beaten, and I make no apologies for saying that.”

He enjoyed himself in Dublin: “We said if we got a meeting, we’d go home. Well, we’re not. We’ll go home when we see what we get at the meeting,” he said to cheers.

“There’s not one f****g oil truck moving in this country until we get what we want. We have the country by the balls.”

Please God, somebody will eventually grab his misogynistic ‘liathróidí’! As Colin Murphy said in The Indo, “On O’Connell Street, far-right figures were hitching their wagons to the tractors. Fuel demonstrations were started by ordinary people, but for some, the grievance is ‘spilling over into other things’.”

READ NEXT: Donegal woman celebrates reaching the milestone of her 90th birthday with a smile

Kildare county councillor Tom McDonnell called for the Government to close international protection centres and to give the money it costs to run them to farmers.

Before the local elections in 2024, McDonnell said Irish women need to “breed” more in reference to a call for increased birth rates. God spare us from all these thickos!

Watching many of the decent and hard-put-upon hauliers and farmers being interviewed on TV, it was obvious they were hurting, but they deserve better than their legitimate grievances being hijacked by the racists and misogynists on the right.

The Government failed to take their temperature at an early stage.

In late March, the former Ceann Comhairle Sean Ó Fearghaíl wrote a letter to the leaders stating that failure to meaningfully address the massive increase in the cost of agri-diesel is a “serious mistake, and needs to be rectified immediately”.

He stressed that otherwise, the increased costs would have a very negative and damaging impact on the agri-sector.

“This omission, coming as it does in the aftermath of the Bord Bia controversy where many farmers throughout the country were worked into a state of incandescent rage, serves only to now further infuriate an already deeply unhappy sector of our economy. As stated, in my opinion, the omission of significant agri supports is unwise and unfair. The failure to act will also have major political ramifications.

Fuel protesters in Donegal 

“The antipathy amongst farmers directed towards Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is unlike anything I have ever witnessed in the past, and if not addressed immediately, will do lasting and perhaps irreparable damage to previously good relations,” he added. He got no response from the relevant ministers.

At the time of writing, Sinn Féin has proposed a vote of no confidence in the Government.

Like the horse I backed in the Grand National, it will most probably not clear the final fence, but if the poll in the Sunday Independent is anyway close to accurate, there are stormy times ahead.

Finally, why were there no protests at the US Embassy or Doonbeg? Because it doesn’t suit the right’s agenda… and yet Trump started the fuel crisis!

Trump and Pope Leo 

Just when you think Trump can’t get more disgusting, he does! After abusing Pope Leo, the Pontiff responded: “It’s ironic — the name of the site itself,” he said of Trump’s Truth Social posts. “Say no more.”

He added: “I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing. I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions to problems. Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.”

Also, a Catholic priest unleashed a viral takedown of Trump after he attacked Pope Leo and posted an image of himself as Jesus Christ healing a sick man.

“You are only a man, Donald Trump, and someday you will stand before our Lord Jesus Christ. You claim our Holy Father is weak, but it takes more strength to do what one should rather than simply what one wants,” Father Joseph DeMarzo of the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey wrote on X.

“You intervened in Venezuela under the pretext of stopping drugs and criminals from entering our country, and under Nicolás Maduro you described the regime in terms of narco-terrorism,” he continued.

“My qualm is the name games you play. Do you think you can simply legitimise actions by denoting terminology to suit your interest? This you did.

“In the same way, you and Benjamin Netanyahu undermine the true meaning of justice through continued acts of unconscionable war crimes, all in the name of ‘self-defense’,” Father DeMarzo continued.

“But with the Lord, there will be no altering of words and their meaning; all that will be left is the truth of what really happened.” “You call the Holy Father weak because he calls for peace? What is weak is bombing children in Gaza in the name of national interest,” he wrote.

“What is weak is saying this is God’s country, yet by your actions you act as an enemy of the cross.”

Father DeMarzo went on to question Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly Operation Warp Speed and the vaccines. He said that “questions and debates” remain about the vaccines and while we don’t agree with that assessment, it was Trump who brought up Covid protocols during his attack on Leo.

And, as DeMarzo pointed out, Trump was president when Covid hit. “Inspired by Christian charity, I implore you, repent,” the priest wrote.

“We are Christ first, not MAGA first. Our first allegiance is to God and His Kingdom. Are you God first or MAGA first? If God first, why do some of your actions betray that truth? If you come after the Church and the Holy Father, don’t think I’ll be silent. I only fear God.”

Well said, Father, and fair play to Pope Leo, who refuses to bow down to a disgusting abomination, who is fast resembling the anti-Christ!

Meanwhile, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey was enjoying himself: “Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Nigel Farage… your boy took a hell of a beating.

Congratulations to the people of Hungary for showing that populist extremists can be defeated – even despite Donald Trump’s best efforts.

READ NEXT: ‘Maggie's first visitors fell in love and she has now found her new family’

Also, has anyone noticed that wherever JD Vance goes, he just makes a mess? In Munich he insulted European allies. In Greenland he turned everyone against Trump. And now he’s helped Viktor Orbán lose re-election.”

Glory for Rory

Rumour has it that the nag I backed in the Grand National is being considered for sulkie racing somewhere near Aintree! Anyway, it’s the only race I bother with during the year, and I don’t put my shirt on it, so here’s to 2027!

Horsey thoughts went clean out of my mind on Sunday, and I really enjoyed the encounter between Tyrone and Armagh. Unless both teams improve, though, I can’t see our Jimmy Mc being too nervous at this juncture.

But then, the Masters! Unlike last year, which was a nail-biter, there was a calm about Rory McIlroy, despite the slender lead, and that calm spread to many who were cheering him on.

It seemed to be written in the stars again, and I can never understand the begrudgery he is subjected to in some narrow-minded quarters.

I was reminded of a dear departed friend and passionate golfer, Michael Furey from Muff (whose dad was a Customs man from ‘In Through’).

Michael came back from playing golf in County Down sometime in the early noughties, and we met for a pint in the Squealing Pig.

He was raving about a young golfer called McIlroy, who, he reckoned, was going to be a world superstar. Sadly, Michael passed away in 2009, before Rory’s glory years.

His prediction was spot on, however. A Rorycoaster indeed!