#Irishwater Who are we ? What are we ? We are your friends , we are your neighbours, we are the ones bringing our community back to life after the economic and political devastation brought on us by weak, Greedy corrupt politicians. Did we set out to do this ? No it all happened by chance a few hardy souls who faith brought together through their belief that we deserve more and that there had to be another way, rather than what we were being told by our political leaders. It was late february early April when i received a message to the Dublin Says No facebook page. For those of you not aware of DSN. We are people from all across Dublin who lost faith with the political system and came together and began marching against the bank bailouts and the Austerity regime dropped on us by Fine Gael & Labour We have Marched every week for over 95 weeks to show those who had lost hope that there was people standing up and prepared to fight back. We responded to a call for help from Donna Griffin in Watermill drive in Raheny. Donna chose to refuse the installation of a water meter but didn`t want to do it alone. So DSN travelled from all over Dublin to stand with Donna. We were joined by Ciaran O`Moore and together we stood together. In the beginning the workers were shocked as they had never encountered a protest against water meters and were hostile and often resorted to threats and intimidation. But we stood our ground and after a few days they moved on and Donna was left without a meter. We were to late to prevent meters being installed in Raheny as the installation process was almost over when we stood at Donna`s but we had achieved what we set out to do and that was prevent a meter being installed at Donna`s house. We had achieved a small but significant victory. We sat around and decided why stop here and those of us that were local to the area decided to continue the fight and we followed the workers who had gathered just up from the Del La Salle school on station road and we set about stopping the work. We were threatened with arrest by the Gardai that day and still we stood our ground and they backed off as we invoked our constitutional right to peacefully protest. We were joined that day by more friends and residents from the locality who had been watching the story unfold in the media and on social media. The next day the meter installers moved to Edenmore and so the battle commenced. Every morning we gathered from 7am and stood guard in our neighbourhood. When machinery was brought in to cut or dig the ground we stood in front of it and mad sure it couldn`t be used. Each day brought a new challenge and a new battle. But one thing we found that as the days went on our belief that we could win this battle grew. We had no support of political parties or Unions. We were just ordinary citizens making a stand. We were Mothers,fathers, grandparents. Some of us were employed and some unemployed. We all had our stories of how we were affected by Austerity but the one thing we all had in common was none of us were prepared to pay for water because we knew the propaganda put out by the Government was false. We knew that Water wasn`t free in this country and it was already paid for. So we set out to try educate people to this while stopping meter installation. Each day we were joined by more and more people. We got so good at what were doing that Irish Water eventually pulled out and left us alone. Then a few weeks later they came back with a different crew. Again it was like the first day when we started. There was threats and intimidation but we didn`t back down Unbeknown to us GMC SIERRA the company installing the meters resorted to using private security and using them to track us and eventually they started bringing us to court to try and scare us into backing down. The tactic failed miserably as every time they took us to court there were others to stand and protect our neighbourhood. Again they pulled out of Edenmore and where ever they went, we went after them and shut them down. Every area we entered we brought new people into the battle. Edenmore,Donaghmede,Kilbarrack,Coolock,Ayrfield,Clarehall,Darndale & Raheny. We were able to call on support from each of these areas. We had achieved something that was`t seen in these parts in years Community spirit . Everyday ordinary citizens were out manning the entrance to their estates and where ever GMC SIERRA arrived a call out for support was put and people came from all over and again we drove them out. The fight against Water meter installation is almost a year old. In the beginning there were people that looked down on us and labelled us as free loaders and trouble makers. Now they look at us and realise we were right to do what we did. We stood for the right reasons and no matter what happened we never backed down. In the next few days a few of us will be jailed for this stance. Do we care ? No because we achieved what most people believed was never possible. We woke the Irish Nation up to the robbery being carried out by our corrupt politicians and their banker friends. We showed how we were being sold down the river to our European masters. On September 20th 2014 Dublin Says No helf the first March against Water charges and Water meters. Up to 5,000 people attended. The next March held by Right2Water attracted over 50,000 people. In November Dublin Says NO held another demo. They gathered at both ends of the Quays and shut Dublin Down. There was upto 100,000 in attendance that day. December Right2Water brought up to 200,000 people to Dublin on a weekday and again Dublin was brought to a standstill. The Government caved with Concession after Concession and said they were listening to the people. If that is so maybe they didn`t hear us properly as we didn`t asked for concessions, we asked for (1) The abolishment of Irish Water (2) Abolishment of Water Charges (3) Abolishment of the water meter program (4) A referendum to protect our natural resources and to prevent our Water being sold to private for profit companies. We will again gather on the 31st of January on the streets of Dublin to hammer home this message. Remember the Power of the people is greater than people in power
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 07:33:40 +0000
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