Abuse over caravans proves Galway has a way to travel

Labour’s unseated TD in Galway West, Derek Nolan, took his fair share of abuse during his five years in the Dáil.

Some would say he wasn’t abused half hard enough. A lot of the flak was merited.

Labour promised too much, and reneged on a few key promises. It sold out with a jolt to the Right. Or else it rescued the country from the abyss. Whatever your take, that debate is for another day.

Prior to losing his seat, the city TD opened up about the abuse he had received.

Not for introducing water charges. Not for hiking up third level fees. Or for cutting the Dole for young people, or cuts to pensioners.

Not for his pro-life attitude to abortion or his liberal views on gay marriage.

The strongest abusive poison that was directed at Nolan was whenever he said anything about Travellers.

One day he went on radio to speak about the plight of Traveller families in Galway who were being moved on from an illegal encampment. No sooner had he got off air, and his inbox was bursting.

“The vitriol is unreal,” he confided.

“You wouldn’t believe the hatred and nastiness. I wouldn’t like to repeat some of the names I have been called. It’s disgusting,” Nolan said.

The other topic that inspired complete strangers to write “nasty hate mail” to him was refugees. “They say things like ‘I should be looking after our own’, ‘they shouldn’t be coming over here’ but they use bad language and are very nasty. It’s racist, and it’s every time I mention Travellers or refugees,” he said.

Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, of Sinn Féin, agreed that he too has been on the receiving end of anti-Traveller vitriol anytime he spoke-up about the subject.

Why should we be surprised?

Sure the mere mention of Travellers in polite company often turns usually mild-mannered, reasonably educated Irish people into rabid fascists.

Water win

Let’s all take a moment to admire those who buried water charges.

No, not Fine Gael, the party with no backbone, who caved in on water charges in order to cling to power.

And certainly not the Sleeveens in Fianna Fáil, the initial architects of the charges, who flip flopped on water for populist selfish party political reasons.

Or to the Shinners or People Before Profit or Anti-Austerity Alliance types who perversely rely on austerity as recruitment tools.

No, let’s take a minute to salute the ordinary homeowners and tenants who refused to buckle to emotional blackmail and threats and bullying.

Remember the mother of Irish Water, Phil Hogan, and the smug smirk on his mug when he said non-payment would result in water supply being turned down to “a trickle”?

Well done to Right2Water Galway and residents in estates like Garraí Dhonaill, Slí Geal, Corrach Buí, Fána Burca, Claremont Park and elsewhere who recognised the botched job the Government had made of setting-up Irish Water and resisted efforts to install water meters.

Water charges may make more sense than a property tax, but ministerial arrogance and incompetence meant they were the final straw that spurred a grassroots revolt. Good riddance to them.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.