𝗢𝗳𝗳-𝗚𝗿𝗶𝗱 𝗜𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 ☘️

They don’t know it yet, but they can feel it. Last Saturday’s “Ireland for All” rally was their Ceaușescu moment.

A little history. In December of 1989 in the city of Timișoara, Romania, a series of anti-government disturbances had broken out for the first time since the Communist dictatorship had been established after the War. These disturbances spread to other towns and even villages and the Securitate, a semi paramilitary, semi secret police force were attempting to keep an lid on events. Of course nothing was reported in the Romanian media. To bolster the regime a huge pro-Communist rally was prepared in Bucharest, the capital, for the 21st of the month. Workers were given time off and buses were sent to collect a crowd in the square in front the Central Committee building to hear and cheer Nicolae Ceaușescu deliver a speech to rapturous applause as had always happened before. He was to announce a series of new government measures, pay increases, increases in fuel allowances, more electricity etc. for the impoverished people of Romania. They were suffering a “cost of living” crisis you might say and he was going to restore the regimes popularity. For a while everything looked great, choreographed down to the last detail. Then something happened, but the television shut off…

Someone, no one will ever know who, started to walk away from the square, someone else began to shout from the crowd remaining. Soon the numbers leaving the square overwhelmed the police cordon and the shouts from the crowd became a loud and almost universal chant “Libertatea!”, Freedom in Romanian. There was chaos, nothing like it had happened to Ceaușescu ever before. Clearly, no one had the nerve to tell him for years just how much ordinary Romanians hated the government. Certainly no one had shouted it in front of the Central Committee Building. What was supposed to be a celebration of the regimes iron grip on the country descended quickly into the opposite. Still Romanian television just reported technical difficulties with the broadcast and otherwise a great success for the event. Word spread quickly. Within a week, with some rear-guard fighting from the despised Securitate, who had nowhere to run, the regime was as dead as Ceaușescu himself.

Last Saturday’s rally was the regimes show of strength in Ireland, a measure of their iron grip. Media, celebrities, all political parties represented in the current Dáil encouraged it with enthusiasm, supported it absolutely. Every NGO, Trade Union, astro-turfed “community group” implored attendance to show, not really so much that mass immigration was welcome, though obviously that, but that every other leftist cause in Ireland was welcome, that their enthusiasm had not dimmed, that the “real” Ireland, their power base, was to speak and thereafter no other voices were to be heard again. Except they don’t quite yet have to power to force people to come, they can implore, persuade and threaten a little even, but not force yet. No matter. There would be tens of thousands, millions maybe. Sure, only the fringes think anything else. That’s what it says in the papers.

And they came. Not the millions though, nor the tens of thousands either. The whole might of the regime brought out maybe 6 to 7 thousand, go wild and call it at 10. The Irish Times and RT€ reports 50,000 but those that were there know better. Those of us watching with initial trepidation know now too. It was a display of force, and as a display of force it wasn’t much. As a display of enthusiasm it was worse, cameras moving through the crowd showed that they were bewildered, their faces distraught when not posing for twitter selfies. But those faces seemed to implore still, aren’t we the real Ireland?

Paul Murphy, God help him, mustered a halting speech which you will have technical difficulties finding on social media or indeed any media. It was reminiscent of, well… Nicolae Ceaușescu’s last one.

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1.07K viewsGabhán, 17:59