The Water protest in Ireland



The News From Ireland,

Water Water and more Water.

·         The Water protest in Ireland may mean that the Irish Government may not introduce the Household broadcast charge.

 Shamrock- image Wikipedia





Well, the news in Ireland for the last few months has been water, water and more water. The media has given it saturation coverage (pardon the pun). It has been a tsunami. The Irish government has been instructed by the Troika¹ to make the Irish people pay for their water. Even in good times this would be a hard sell. But after years of austerity this has proved a step too far and people are up in arms; some have even taken to arms, with those appointed to fit water meters being threatened at gun point. It has brought people on to the streets. On one particular day it brought out 150,000 people protesting, probably the highest number of people ever to protest. (Today as I write this there is another protest, with the organisers claiming 100,000 people out protesting; if you tune into The Late Debate tonight, RTE Radio 1, it will be all water, water, water, - I haven’t heard what will be on but that’s my guess). As a result the govt have had to drastically reduce the proposed water costs. This is what has filled the media’s sails for the last while.  Another unexpected off-shoot of this dam burst of Irish anger is that the govt has been on the back foot as regards its austerity measures and as a result it has had to lessen the blow. So out of the blue the govt is unlikely to be introducing the Household broadcasting charge that it was due to introduce in Jan. They’re not doing it out of any sense of fair play but to cling to power. So prayer does work and God has heard our prayers; we continue hoping and praying that this is the case.There is another big water demonstration scheduled for Dec 10^th, this Wednesday, it is forecast to be a big one. People are still not happy about paying for water. After all selling water to the Irish is like trying to sell ice to the Eskimos. This govt could fall over the issue. The only danger is that if the polls are correct there could be a big rise on the left where they would introduce all sorts of grotesque policies such as abortion on demand.

The new feudalisation of the old by RTE as they continue to phase out Catholicism 

                 RTE has been up to its usual sleight of hand acts. On Sunday mornings since as far back as I can remember - possibly since the station has been founded - it has broadcast Sunday morning Mass for the sick, elderly and housebound as its main broadcasting programme. In recent years it would divert to LW for these religious programmes. (RTE operates on FM and LW) and continue its other normal  programming on FM. Recently it has stated it will no longer be operating on LW and that there would be no interruption  to its Sunday Mass broadcasts as people would be able to tune in to it on digital. How many old people have a computer? How many old, sick, poor people are going to bring their computer to hospital with them? It’s another aspect of the phasing out of the Catholic religion in Ireland with the charge been led by RTE.

            You may remember in one of my briefings I told you about The Joe Duffy programme, - how the B.A.I. had ruled against them, twice actually. There has been another ruling against the RTE Mooney Goes Wild programme. Mooney who is publicly ‘Gay’, who constantly peddles the ‘Gay’ agenda at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, was this time found guilty of biased promotion of ‘Gay’ marriage in an unbalanced way with no-one there to put across the opposite view point.

St Vincent de Paul Society in Ireland give 40,000 Euros to LGBT

                As if the Media weren’t doing enough to promote the ‘Gay’ lifestyle, a Catholic organization has thought they need an extra digout. The Vincent de Paul gave 40,000 euros to the lgbt organization to build their own centre. Their argument is that they are a marginalized group so they needed help. The Bishop has demanded an explanation from them. I don’t think any explanation is possible. This had to happen at the highest levels; this wasn’t some member acting on their own to give this amount of money away. There should be a serious overhaul of this group if they still want to retain the title Catholic organization.

                The Catholic world is crying out for its own radio station. By this I mean a radio station that gives current affairs and everyday news with analysis and fair debate through the prism of the Catholic faith. The nearest I have seen to this or heard to this is Catholic Connections in America. It’s a Catholic  Radio Programme, as the name suggests, which deals with church issues and secular issues (American issues generally) through the prism of the Catholic faith. It’s hosted by Teresa Tomeo who has written a book or two on the media. If I could make a suggestion, if you could get an mp3 player in your car it’s possible to download these radio programmes on to a usb, and many others besides. Catholic programmes can also be downloaded from EWTN. There are many other free talks that can be downloaded by good Catholic speakers such as Bishop Fulton Sheen and Scott Hahn. I find the easiest way to find them is to type in ’Bishop Fulton Sheen free mp3’ etc. and they come up and you can listen to these good Catholic speakers as you drive along.

           Well, that’s just some of the things going on here in Ireland.  So I’ll bid you a Shona Nollaig (merry Christmas) and God Bless.

Prayer Crusader under the patronage of St Rita

1 The term Troika, which comes from the Russian meaning 'group of three', was increasingly used during the Eurozone crisis to describe the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.