Sir, – I am struggling with the definition of “peaceful protest”. There is nothing peaceful about what is happening across the country.
Not everyone being rushed to hospital is in an ambulance with flashing lights. People can be bleeding to death in a family car, or go into labour, or need dialysis or chemotherapy. It actually doesn’t matter what the reason is, it is their absolute right to get to where they need to go.
Law-abiding citizens do not have to justify or explain their journey to anyone; that is as much democracy as is the right to protest.
People deploying a vehicle on a public road, using the physical threat that it represents to intimidate and frustrate other road users cannot claim to be “protesting peacefully”.
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The Government can simply bring legislation to seize and sell vehicles that are being used for this purpose. They should get on with it, before someone gets seriously hurt. – Yours, etc,
ROB STRUNZ,
Scariff,
Co Clare.
Sir, – Walking along O’Connell Street this afternoon, (April 8th), one couldn’t avoid being awed at the size and quality of the magnificent tractors, some parked on the road, others on the central island. New Holland, Claas, John Deere, Deutz-Fahr, Case, to name but a few.
Not a sign of a beat-up Massey Ferguson or an old Fordson Major. Those poor farmers must be really suffering. Doing some very rudimentary mathematics, I found the average cost of one such machine to be €167,000. And that’s not for a brand new version.
Time to get a grip, lads and lassies, and get on with your work, the same as everyone else. – Yours, etc,
NOEL MANNION,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – Who got their posteriors out of their beds during Covid to interact with others while most of us stayed safely at home?
Who produced food for us? Who delivered food to the supermarkets?
Who trucked masks, medicines and ventilators so most of us could live?
Eaten bread is soon forgotten. – Yours, etc,
ANNE MARIE REGAN,
Drombanna,
Co Limerick.
Sir, – I could understand fuel protests outside the US embassy, or the HQs and operations of US president Donald Trump’s corporate enablers.
To my knowledge the Irish Government, nor the commuters, travellers, workers, patients, carers, had or have anything to do with the root cause of fuel price rises.
But fire ahead and block traffic, and fuel imports. That’ll solve the problem. – Yours, etc,
AIDAN INGOLDSBY,
Blessington,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – It is totally unacceptable that groups of people decide to block our roads and fuel depots with the resulting chaos – where the hell do they think they are living ... France? – Yours, etc
GEORGE PARSONS,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – I note that peace activist Lelia Doolan is walking from Shannon Airport to Leinster House in protest at the airport’s use by US military aircraft and is now on the final stretch from Portlaoise to Dublin. What foresight by Doolin to anticipate, given the fuel protesters’ blockades, that this is probably the fastest way to get to her destination. – Yours etc,
DAVID LOUGHLIN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6
