There’s
a rumour going around
–
You might have heard it –
That
Ireland’s on the rebound.
That
we’re stable
And
we’re able,
As
we face a future bright
Full
of promise and delight.
The
ship of state is in safe harbour,
All
thanks to the behaviour
Of
Fine Gael and Labour,
Their
eminence
In
governance.
But
we know the truth.
We
know
Interest
rates are at lows never seen before,
Bond
yields at rates that have hit the floor,
And
yet, and yet…
Last
year on our national debt
we
paid €8bn interest. Eight billion!
When
those rates rise, we sink.
Recovery?
We’re on the brink.
We
know
The
exchange rate collapse against pound and dollar
Has
seen our exports soar,
Our
tourism roar,
But
again, and as with the interest rate failure
NOTHING
to do with Fine Gael /Labour.
Quantitative
Easing;
Oil
price squeezing –
You
think these are controlled by Joan or Enda,
Are
remotely related to our government’s agenda?
No,
my friends.
Rather
than steering the ship to safe haven
We
are cast adrift in stormy seas,
At
the mercy of the wind, the waves,
Weighed
down with ballast of increased debt
And
abandoned to our own fate
While
the captain and his officer corps
Take
the lifeboat to a sunny shore,
Their
pension booty safe, secure.
Recovery?
Stability? For who?
We
know, because we know the truth.
There’s
a rumour going around
–
You might have heard it –
That
jobs have been created,
Unemployment
has abated
And
the country’s back on track.
Jobs?
Heading towards full employment?
What
kind of jobs? What kind of employment?
We
know the truth, the real numbers;
The
part-time employed,
The
under-employed,
The
job-bridge scam-bridged;
And
then, those who are made totally invisible,
Who
can’t even get on the register. Risible. Totally risible.
And
this isn’t to even mention emigration,
A
nation stripped of a generation,
Our
youth forced out by the anti-youth bias
Of
a cold, short-sighted government.
‘We
can’t afford ye - get ye gone
And
we’ll call ye anon,
When
we need ye!’
There’s
a rumour going around
–
You might have heard it –
That
Enda took the hard decisions,
Made
only necessary incisions
On
the weakest of the weak,
On
the poorest of the poor,
On
the sickest of the sick,
On
the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.
And
– shamefully – on the venerable,
Their
hard-won legacy
Inexorably
undone.
Hard
decisions? Hitting the softest targets again and again
While
protecting the powerful from sharing the pain?
We
know the truth of it.
There’s
a rumour going around
–
You might have heard it –
That
the Promissory Notes were destroyed,
Great
ingenuity deployed
And
it saved us €20 billion.
There’s
even a rumour going around
That
on the new P Note deal
We’re
making money
On
destroying money.
I
mean, is that for real?
We
know the truth.
Trichet
barked his threat
And
ALL that private debt
Was
transferred to us
In
one fell, foul swoop.
Debt
slaves for generations
To
a new Empire of subjugators,
Betrayed
by our own.
Yes,
there’s a rumour going around
–
You might have heard it –
Of
Stability and Recovery.
They’ll
promise the earth but ‘twill be no surprise
If
all that we get is mud in our eyes.
Because
we know the TRUE legacy
Of
this Fine Gael/Labour confederacy.
The
Irish Water debacle;
The
Property Charge debacle;
The
HSE debacle;
The
homeless debacle;
The
hunger and poverty debacle;
The
flooding debacle;
The
Siteserv debacle;
The
IBRC wind-up debacle;
The
hasty and costly NAMA fire-sale of assets debacle;
The
Eircode debacle;
The
Promissory Notes debacle;
The
Banking Inquiry debacle;
The
firing of the Garda Commissioner debacle;
And
on and on and on.
Stability?
Recovery?
In
Ireland 2016
We
struggle to make ends meet,
Ends
this government has stretched beyond breaking point.
‘No
cuts to welfare or pension’ they chant!
But
that half-truth is exposed
As
we daily deal with regressive charges imposed.
We
know the truth
Because
we LIVE
the truth.
We
bury our dead,
Those
for whom life under your rule became so repressive,
So
depressive,
That
by their own hand, they end it;
Not
because they want to die,
But
because you have crushed their spirit.
We
nurse our sick,
We
care for our infirm,
For
our venerable,
For
our vulnerable,
Those
whom this coward regime has brutalised
As
you vandalised
Our
social services.
Oh
yes, we know the truth.
Our
resources squandered,
National
assets plundered,
Our
oil, our gas, our fishing-grounds,
Given
away for a song.
Sovereignty
surrendered
Without
even an argument.
It’s
not just that Fianna Fáil
destroyed
our economy,
Or
Fine Gael/Labour
destroyed
our society,
It’s
that between them all,
By
their craven submission to Trichet’s threats,
By
their coward assumption of private debts,
They
have bruised the soul of a noble nation,
A
tale of betrayal
On
an ignoble scale.
100
years after 1916,
We
are slaves again,
New
chains and a new empire.
We
know the truth of it.
We’ve
made our own discovery
Of
this recovery
And
we know;
We
don’t just need to rearrange
The
deck-chairs on this ship of state –
We
need change, REAL change.
On
Friday February 26th 2016
100
years after Easter 1916,
Let
there be a new Rising.
