Poetic justice as protests rain on Kenny’s parade Around 200 protesters braved the pouring rain yesterday to demonstrate their continued opposition to water charges as Taoiseach Enda Kenny visited Blackpool, Cork, to announce 120 IT jobs at Xanadu, a services provider to the online sports trading market. Conditions outside Xanadu might have put protesters in mind of the line from Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ — “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink” — but few were dissuaded from expressing their dissatisfaction. John Murphy from Ballyvolane was one of the hundreds hemmed in behind a barrier opposite the ground-floor entrance to the building that hosts Xanadu and a number of other companies in offices in Blackpool Retail Park. “It’s always going to be peaceful,” said Mr Murphy. “All these allegations from the Government about sinister fringes is a load of bullshit in my opinion, pardon the language. It’s usually peaceful. You’re going to get a loony everywhere you go, you know what I mean?” He said the climbdown on water charges has not gone far enough. “They said they were listening to the people,” he said. “If they were listening to the people they would have heard us say ‘abolish Irish Water, no charges’. We want to abolish Irish Water. “I was on several marches down through the months and years. I never heard anybody say ‘reduce the charges’. Everybody I’ve ever heard at the marches said ‘abolish the charges’. It’s as simple as that. If they were really listening to the people, that’s what they would have done.” Mr Kenny arrived 20 minutes late, but was left in little doubt as to why the majority of those who greeted him were there, with boos and chants of “No way, we won’t pay” and “out, out, out” only getting louder as he got out of his car. Inside the more welcoming surrounds of Xanadu’s offices, he welcomed Noel Coonan’s U-turn on his comments comparing the water protesters to Isis, but said he hoped the focus would now shift toward the recovering economy. “Yes, there have been incidents in the course of the last number of weeks where this might have been a bit rough, but insofar as the language is concerned, I’m glad that Noel Coonan withdrew his remarks and I’d like that people would now focus on what we’re about here,” said Mr Kenny. “What we’re about is obviously announcing more jobs here in Cork.” Chants of “out, out, out” rang filled the air as the Taoiseach was sped away in a garda car. Mr Kenny may have hoped the public would forget the water charges and focus on the recovery. Outside Xanadu, however, there’s little evidence that anyone is listening. Source: irishexaminer
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 02:27:05 +0000
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