Fuel protest chaos is symptom of a fracturing society |
Of all the bizarre sights during last week’s fuel protests, Athlone took the biscuit, or in this case, the Holy Ghost.
A priest was filmed sitting in a lorry trailer, a white sheet thrown over a makeshift table, saying Mass. Bless you, Father.
Open-air sermons rival the Covid days of priests cruising around in Ireland’s version of the Popemobile, blessing the faithful from afar.
Or the image of someone supposedly using a super-soaker to baptise babies at the height of the pandemic, making Father Ted look more like a documentary than satire.
Count on Ireland to create craic from crisis.
We also have a knack, though, for making a bad situation worse.
As demonstrators expressed anger over rising fuel prices and the government’s cack-handed response, they inevitably attracted unsavoury behaviour.
“We want a French invasion,” typed one supporter.
In Cork, a man in a lumberjack shirt pointed at gardaí and roared: “Michael Collins, if he was here, he’d have a machine gun at ye.” Charming.
On Friday, the Muslim Sisters of Éire, who run an outdoor soup kitchen at the GPO, were verbally and racially abused by other protesters who no doubt dub themselves warriors and patriots.
On Sunday, after bringing Dublin to a standstill for five days, another........