Dispatch / ‘People are at breaking point’: on the road with the Irish fuel protesters |
Melissa Kite (featuring one of the truckers) has narrated this article for you to listen to.
A fuel protestor stood on top of a tractor waving a tricolor. In Ireland, everything is about nationhood and the price of oil is being contested here like a new war of independence.
I got into the middle of a scrum of farmers and hauliers blockading Whitegate oil refinery, a kamikaze sort of protest, for it has been stopping tankers getting in and out to supply the country, severely limiting supplies.
Here on the windswept coast of Cork, traditionally dubbed the rebel county, working men have been sending out the message that they have nothing left to lose. The oil crisis sent this lot over the edge arguably because they were already on the verge of a collective nervous breakdown over fuel costs, higher than in Britain partly due to EU carbon taxes.
A fair-haired young construction worker was giving speeches with all the passion of Michael Collins
A fair-haired young construction worker was giving speeches with all the passion of Michael Collins
As I crammed with them against the barriers of the police lines, one of the men told me he was losing nothing by being in this blockade all week because the cost of living was so high, and the money he earned from driving his lorry was so little, there was no point going to work anyway.
A fair-haired young construction worker was giving speeches at the centre of the scrum with all the passion of Michael Collins. He pushed his way towards me, telling me to take this down: ‘We’re here today, right, because our country is going to rack and ruin. The cost of living here has got out of control, we’re paying the highest rates of electricity in Europe, some of the highest gas rates, 60 per cent tax on fuel. People are at breaking point. We can barely fill our cars to get to work. The farmers are the ones who feed us and they’re on the verge of going bust. The price of food is going up. We’re already struggling as it is… And they’ve done a golden handshake again and given €40 million to Ukraine the other week. That’s our money. They’re spending €3.2 million a day on Ipas centres in our country but they’ve no money for their own people.’
Ah, now we’re getting to it. The notorious expansion of International Protection Accommodation Services, refugee housing, known as Ipas centres, which are springing up all over Ireland. Many of the........