Sir, – Julien Mercille's review of Brendan Ogle's book From Bended Knee to a New Republic on the water protest movement fails the objectivity test ("Brendan Ogle's balanced insider's guide to water protests", Weekend Review, December 20th).
While this first draft of history is written by one of the winners, it is unlikely that even Mr Ogle would describe his brand of left populism as “balanced”, as Prof Mercille does. What follows reads more like a paean to Mr Ogle and the admittedly significant movement he led than a measured analysis that might assist in understanding its potential impact on our politics.
Prof Mercille fails to support his assertion that the water charges protest was per capita one of the world’s most important protest movements.
He posits a risible false equivalence between the vicious intimidation of Joan Burton and her adviser and the light hand applied to protesters who intimidated workers.
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Most glaringly, he concludes that the water protest movement was historically significant without bringing any evidence to bear on an assertion that is strangely lacking in rigour for an academic. Indeed the fact of a Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil government in all but name following years of water protests hardly speaks of a historic shift in the centre of gravity in Irish politics.
What is missing from Prof Mercille’s review is an acknowledgment that the water protests were successful in bringing about a fundamental change in government policy towards the funding of water services, irrespective of whether this shift is ultimately in the public interest.
Having won this battle, whether the movement will have any enduring impact on our politics and wider society is an open question that Prof Mercille’s hagiography fails to address. – Yours, etc,
ED BROPHY,
(Former chief of staff
to tánaiste Joan Burton),
Dublin 8.