I'M going to attempt to catch up on things I have been meaning to post about, so first up is last weekend's protest against the education cuts in the Budget.
And what an impressive turnout, tens of thousands took to the streets with an astonishing amount of placards. Merrion Square was completely decorated with them at the end of the day. Here's some images from the afternoon and you can see more on Flickr.
Ha this is brilliant and very appropriate for the week thats been in it.
more lol celebs!
I NORMALLY don’t do this, for reasons I have stated before, but I was so angry and disgusted about something that happened during the grey revolution demonstration yesterday (more on that later) concerning Fianna Fail TD Michael Kennedy that I have to post.
Being either brave or completely foolhardy and possessing the complete brass neck necessary to put yourself forth as a public representative Michael Kennedy strayed from the safety of the plinth of Leinster House and positioned himself at the railings where he proceeded to comment during the speakers to the pensioners around him.
He spoke of the money given to single parents and their ‘10 kids’ and, get this, ‘FREE HOUSES’. (They are actual quotes.) Seriously my daughter is 16 years old now and he is saying there are free houses, given what I said before about the trouble I have had getting onto the property ladder; I have missed out on these free houses. So where can I sign up?
Course he could be talking about those people who legitimately put their name down for a council house, because they have a housing need and are perfectly entitled to go to their local authority. Do you see that new word Michael, entitled. These ‘free’ houses also involve paying rent so in reality there is nothing free about it. And to try and basically incite prejudice using this stick is dodgy in the extreme.
I found myself doing something I don’t normally do, I went after him asking for my free house; I couldn't help myself. He needed to be pulled up on this disgraceful rant. You were heard Michael and shame on you. It is funny and possibly ironic because he ignored me, a single parent, when I pulled him up on it. Maybe he didn’t have any free houses to hand, for non-Fianna Failers anyway.
Speaking of entitlements Michael Kennedy presumably when he retires from the Dáil will do so with a large pension which he is entitled to. So while one of his suggestions to the nearby pensioners who due to the amount of people were stuck on the spot listening to his bile that money could be taken away from single parents, money to which they are entitled too. Taking that as my lead it could also be suggested that some monies could be recouped from hefty ex-TD salaries.
Once again shame on you Michael; that was quite simply disgusting behaviour, seriously disgraceful. What were you trying to do? Were you attempting to distract the pensioners’ anger away the deeds of your Government to the other members of our society who are vulnerable? That’s how it would appear to me and that is disgusting behaviour.
I was happy having asked him about my free house and being completely ignored, nothing new there as a single parent I have often felt ignored by the Government, when he was surrounded by a pack of pensioners who were having none of his blarney. I had a lot of fun snapping that.
So if you are a single parent in Dublin North, this man represents you, are you happy about that?
Feel free to link to this post, I would be delighted and so would Michael, I’m sure.
While both Daragh and I at the Dublin Community Blog have written about this already, not to mention MacDara who managed to flee Lebanon with his wife last week before organising the event (well done), I am posting some of the photographs I took at yesterday's demonstration, there are more on the Dublin Blog as well as on the Dublin Blog Flickr group.
Here's the Irish Times Breaking News report on the demo, subscription required and from Breaking News.ie .
Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs Lebanon demonstration
