I WATCHED THE protests and blockades of late that partly paralysed this country from a unique vantage point. I was fortunate not to have to be in Dublin during the first two days of the disquiet, then arrived more than four hours early to Terminal 2 at the airport in order to ensure that I would make a transatlantic flight and subsequently took in the media coverage of what transpired over a long weekend in my native Boston.
Interestingly, though perhaps unsurprisingly, attention was paid there to events “back home” by the abundant population of Irish-born people and Irish Americans who have very close ties to their motherland. As was seen by hundreds of thousands online, this included a convoy of large trucks and vehicles, draped in tricolours and driven by building contractors, proceeding through Adams Corner in the Dorchester section of Boston. I was in the neighbourhood’s legendary Éire Pub the following day, and it was still being discussed in its environs.
In what remains the “most Irish” territory in the United States, sympathies lay ardently with those who obstructed the roads to express their anger at what they see as the Government’s failure to shield them from the skyrocketing costs of fuel, and plenty more perceived transgressions besides. Rather than attempt to at least contextualise the entirety of the situation and all of the realities in the place where I actually live, and potentially invoke furious reactions in so doing, I just listened.
The Boston Irish were on the side of the protesters. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
And what I heard near unanimously from residents of the Boston area – whose origins, whose roots, whose family and whose friends are a good distance away from the likes of South Dublin or other affluent locales – echoed the sentiments that have been shared with me here on countless occasions.
Rural Ireland – not farmers alone, but all who get their hands dirty for a living – is getting screwed. Ordinary workers haven’t a hope. Taxes of all sorts are exorbitant, yet taxpayers garner scant return on their investment. The health system is a joke. Young men and women, even if well-qualified, highly educated and in receipt of big salaries, cannot afford a home and have to emigrate. Everything, from petrol to pints, is ridiculously expensive. There isn’t the same sense of community. The politicians are only in it for themselves.
A changing Ireland
There are readers who are nodding vigorously to each of the preceding eight sentences. Two further elements of a now familiar, wide-ranging critique were mentioned more vociferously in a nation led by President Donald Trump. The first is the absurdity of punitive carbon taxes and other levies associated with environmental protection and climate change, given how minuscule this island is. The second is excessive immigration and the fervently held belief that, on an array of fronts, the needs of newcomers are being prioritised over the needs of the Irish born.
That the emotions of a substantial swathe of the citizenry on the foregoing matters have reached a boiling point is an obvious conclusion that can be drawn from the protests and blockades. That the Government, in response, swiftly put together a relief package of more than €500 million to support those struggling with fuel prices demonstrates their awareness of the current state of play – as well as their consequent vulnerability – notwithstanding the trenchant objections from the opposition that it is not enough.
A contemporaneous Ireland Thinks/Sunday Independent poll revealed that 56% of the sample who were asked approved of the protesters’ actions, while 38% disapproved. Commentators have since opined that the seeds for a hard-right movement may have been planted in this brief, disruptive period. In his Irish Times column mooting that possibility, Fintan O’Toole, I believe, sneeringly exclaimed: “Welcome to the dictatorship of the ‘breakfast roll-atariat’!”
Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
But is this really the pivotal moment? As palpable as the rage is out there and as solely the foolhardy continue to assume that Ireland is immune to the global wave of nationalist ultra-conservatism, will the occurrences of this month be recalled as the dawn of a sea change? Just as so much else we observe in 2026, it is very difficult to know what lurks around the corner.
Bye-elections
The 22nd May bye-election in the Galway West constituency could offer a sign. Noel Thomas of Independent Ireland, the political grouping readily identified with the fuel protest agitators, is regarded by many as a favourite in the contest to replace President Catherine Connolly in the Dáil.
The ex-member of Fianna Fáil, who criticised his former party’s approach to immigration and once asserted that “the inn is full,” will seek to capitalise on the anger that animated protesters. And it would be undeniably significant if he were to win a seat held by a woman of the left in the face of a fledgling, albeit unwieldy, alliance of progressive candidates. That is far from a sure thing, however.
Meanwhile, the Government touts an enormous budget surplus and a generally rosy picture in its spring economic statement. Despite the global calamity emanating from President Trump’s badly misguided war on Iran, Ireland’s financial position seems robust. Nonetheless, as Mary Lou McDonald retorts, that is no comfort to those who are hurting, lots of whom participated in or endorsed the recent uprising. Moreover, the extent of the threat posed to us by the unprecedentedly erratic nature of the Trump administration renders any assertion that we are secure wholly untenable.
With a Fianna Fáil leadership heave having been precluded, internal exhortations to heed voters’ concerns, to revitalise the social contract and to get back to basics will persist. There will be not totally dissimilar messages and strategies disseminated in the other parties. Any such rhetoric or efforts that emerge will be characterised by most of the aggrieved as way too little, way too late.
In the end, there is one key truth: what has been bubbling beneath for some time exploded in the protests and blockades. Its future trajectory, politically and otherwise, is unknowable. It may be commonly proffered that Ireland is a relative oasis of tranquillity in a chaotic world, but uncertainty also reigns here.
Larry Donnelly is a Boston lawyer, a Law Lecturer at the University of Galway and a political columnist with TheJournal.ie.