When I was a young lad, there was a guy who often passed by close to our house at night on his way home from the pub. I thought he was an old man at the time, but he was probably only in his fifties. He would stop at the corner of our terrace before tackling the next stage of his journey and with nobody else in sight he would launch into a tirade of abuse.
This involved lots of cursing and swearing but I’m not sure if anyone knew exactly who it was aimed at. Or even if there was meant to be someone on the receiving end. It may have been intended for the community as a whole.
The outbursts never made any sense to me. I couldn’t understand a word except for the expletives and maybe they didn’t even make much sense to himself. He was a peculiar character. A quiet man by day who lived on his own and whenever I met him, which was always during the daytime, he would say hello.
This was back in the sixties and maybe if he had been born in the modern era he may have been diagnosed as being on the spectrum and with some of the care that’s available today, he might have turned out differently. He wasn’t the only one. There was always a character like that in the town as I suppose there was in every locality. Usually classed as odd but harmless.
Shouting obscenities at the world was as daft as howling at the moon but it was tolerated as long as nobody was offended. I worked in a locality back in the eighties and I can remember a similar character whose antics sometimes overstepped the mark of what was acceptable and when they amounted to a breach of the peace, he ended up in the garda station.
Generally speaking, these people were harmless but that’s changing now. Public expressions of anger and intolerance have reached new levels, the likes of which I have never experienced. The worrying part is that much of it seems to be going unchallenged.
There was video footage shared on social media recently of Leo Varadkar sitting outside a café in the sunshine minding his own business. A male and a female voice could be heard shouting at him from a car which had stopped nearby. The vitriol that spewed from those people was outrageous. They directed disgusting comments from the top of their voices at Varadkar and were so proud of their actions that they recorded the incident and uploaded it to social media for all to see.
Another clip doing the rounds showed a guy who turned up for work in Newtownmountkennedy at a site earmarked to accommodate international protection applicants. He was met by a small group of protesters but one guy in particular lost the plot completely. He was hyper aggressive, insulting, threatening and abusive and looked as if he was close to lashing out.
What surprised me, apart from the small-man antics, was that nobody else present made any attempt to calm this character down. They were passively supporting him which emboldened him even further which probably sums up in a nutshell where Irish society is today in relation to these far-right activists.
They’re bad news, we know that, but we’re standing back, reluctant to tackle them in case we inflame the situation and further their cause.
It’s time to stand against these people but the lead must be taken by An Garda Siochana. They are the lawful arm of the State, but they are hesitant. Speaking in Dublin Castle recently, Commissioner Harris said that the Gardaí are taking a ‘long-term view’ on the far-right.
“There’s two bits of their playbook that we can see that they want to achieve.” he said. “One, they want to act on local fears, local concerns and, in effect, gather up a crowd. They’ve been successful on occasion and other occasions they’ve been completely refuted. The other piece, and it’s a classic part of their playbook, is an over-response by the authorities of the State, i.e. An Garda Síochána. We are not going to fall into that trap.”
We’re all familiar with the far-right tactics. They stick camera phones into the faces of the gardai while screaming obscenities and aggressively pushing the boundaries of public order, hoping for a response.
At the mere hint of a finger on one of the agitators there is a dramatic tumble to the ground accompanied by screams of police brutality for added effect. The videos are then uploaded to social media as examples of police violence and used to recruit more misguided souls.
They are becoming more aggressive and more emboldened as recent attacks on the homes of politicians have demonstrated. They wrap themselves in the tricolour and claim to be patriots justifying their behaviour as defenders of the State.
It’s time for change. The softly, softly approach isn’t working. The argument that it prevents escalation of unrest and reduces the possibility of propaganda videos doesn’t hold water. These people are running rough shod over the authority of the State and it’s time they were dealt with using whatever force is necessary to achieve that end and bring them before the courts to face justice.
Commissioner Harris is concerned about “an over response by the authorities of the State” and how that might be perceived. But as long as the response is lawful and proportionate what’s the problem?
Ireland is changing. There is an element in society now intent on causing disruption. They have no boundaries, no respect, and they’re full of hate. They’re growing in number too. There is plenty of legislation available to deal with them, all that’s required now is the backbone to use it.
