Yesterday morning, O\u2019Connell Street was still occupied by a motley assortment of tractors, lorries, vans and coaches. The vehicles were frilled with bunting and tricolor flags. Signs hung from tractor cabs and car windows: \u201cTaxed to Extinction\u201d, \u201cNo Farms, No Food\u201d, \u201cCan\u2019t Afford to Move\u201d, and \u201cGovernment \u2013 Remember Who You Work For!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
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Credit: Alexander Poots<\/p>\n
The mood was cheerful. Shops and cafes were open as normal. Ned Kelly\u2019s Casino was blasting Katy Perry onto the street a little before 9am. A woman measured herself against a tractor\u2019s rear wheel, laughing at the sheer enormity of the tire. Garda\u00ed maintained a light presence at the southern end of O\u2019Connell Street, where the blockade had spread to the bridge over the Liffey.<\/p>\n
I met John beneath the bronze and granite O\u2019Connell Monument. He had driven down from his home in County Cavan that morning. \u201cIt\u2019s 20 tolls a week,\u201d he told me. \u201cThat\u2019s \u20ac200 cost before I put bread on the table. Every time you fill the tank, more than half of it goes to the government. And then there\u2019s every other tax. The government gets more out of your wages than you do.\u201d Acknowledging a need for wider change, he added: \u201cWe\u2019re trying to make it sustainable to work for a living here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seamus, another Cavan man, is a softly-spoken farmer. \u201cWe are here to get this corrupt government out,\u201d he told me. \u201cDiesel prices have practically trebled since they took power, and they don\u2019t want to listen to us at all.\u201d As in the UK, the economics of Irish farming have gone from bad to appalling. Often, according to Seamus, it is cheaper to let land lie fallow: \u201cWe have no margin left. Actually, we were going to be down money by plowing a field. It\u2019s better to just walk away and leave it there.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Credit: Alexander Poots<\/p>\n
The protests began over the cost of filling the tank of a tractor or lorry, but they have become an opportunity to articulate a broader range of issues. John stressed that heating oil prices remain high. \u201cIf we want heat on in the house now, it\u2019s \u20ac2000,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd this side of the winter, we\u2019re just not doing it. So it\u2019s hot water bottles \u2014 that\u2019s the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seamus bemoans the importation of cheap beef from Brazil. A recent scandal, when Brazilian beef raised on a banned growth hormone entered<\/a> the Irish food chain last year, has not been forgotten. Among these protesters, trust in government is gone. When I approached one young guy for a chat, he was polite but firm: \u201cThere\u2019s been enough talking.\u201d<\/p>\n A temporary Fuel Support Scheme<\/a> is planned, on the understanding that it will only be rolled out when protests end. Government ministers met with the Irish Farmers\u2019 Association and the Irish Road Haulage Association on Friday. Seamus was bemused by the fact that Christopher Duffy<\/a>, one of the protest movement\u2019s most vocal spokesmen, was excluded from those negotiations. \u201cThey will have to talk to him,\u201d the farmer insisted.<\/p>\n Whether or not Seamus is right, it remains to be seen how long the momentum of these protests can be maintained. Sympathetic onlookers may well feel differently when the reality of dry gas stations sinks in. And the government seems ready to take a harder line in the coming days. On Saturday afternoon, protesters were removed<\/a> from the Whitegate refinery, and a water cannon<\/a> sent to Cork. By Sunday morning, Garda\u00ed had cleared<\/a> O\u2019Connell Street too.<\/p>\n