It goes without saying that acts of physical force like pushing and throwing objects at a sitting TD (or anyone else for that matter) is obviously unacceptable, and it shouldn’t be controversial to say that.
Anyone who engaged in that behaviour towards Micheal Healy-Rae TD outside the Dáil on Wednesday is clearly an idiot. We can’t have a society where people are getting shoved and physically intimidated in public, and especially not elected representatives. It’s wrong, it’s corrosive to our social fabric, and pretty much every commentator who’s weighed in on the matter to date has agreed with that point. Everyone remotely sane is on the same page here – we don’t need to keep re-iterating it.
With that said, it’s also obviously the case that a small amount of argy bargy on Kildare Street – which is effectively what happened – is not the end of Irish democracy as we know it, as some people are implying. Many commentators have spent the last number of days hysterically blowing this incident wildly out of proportion, for reasons best known to themselves.
For example, weighing in after the event, barrister and podcaster Joe Brolly inexplicably took the opportunity to say that this incident proved the need for so-called “hate speech” legislation.
Hate crime legislation is currently being considered by Seanad Éireann. https://t.co/lkg1NAVg3A
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) September 21, 2023
What exactly this incident has to do with hate speech laws isn’t clear, of course – shoving someone isn’t a form of speech, and nothing that happened to Healy-Rae could be construed as a “hate crime.” It was just a run of the mill public order issue, as we have seen many times before, which is why 13 people were arrested under existing legislation – no new laws required.
Even the unacceptable portrayals of TDs being hanged in effigy is covered by existing legislation. So Brolly’s position really doesn’t make any sense here.
Even more over the top, the Irish Times editorial yesterday seemed to comically compare the day’s events to Mussolin’s march on Rome – which is a bit like comparing stubbing your toe to Hiroshima. It’s hard to imagine a more ludicrous overreaction to anything – you’d swear people flew planes into the Dáil or something listening to that reaction.
At the end of the day, a couple of individual headbangers within a bigger crowd physically jostled a TD and his staff, which was absolutely wrong and to be condemned. But of the couple of hundred people there to protest, the overwhelming majority didn’t participate in violence of any kind. Of the couple who did engage in some pushing, nobody was hurt or injured in the process. Nothing was destroyed. No tangible damage of any kind was left in their wake – the Dáil was not left in a flaming crater. Ultimately, in a crowd of hundreds, a few people got overly pushy and aggressive – that’s what we’re actually talking about here. And some are acting like this was a kind of apocalyptic annihilation of everything we hold dear as a society.
It shouldn’t need to be said that something can be bad, and we can agree it can’t be normalised, without it being the beginning of Armageddon.
Of course whataboutism is a lazy debate tactic, and typically doesn’t excuse anything (nor am I trying to excuse anything). But I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that this stuff is hardly unheard of in Ireland – a couple of years ago we saw an idiot with a skateboard chuck a smoothie on Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and judging by the cut of her I’m fairly certain the woman behind that wasn’t rightwing.
Footage shows woman throwing smoothie at Tánaiste Leo Varadkar in Dublin:https://t.co/VRaxV4Ry2M pic.twitter.com/xknE99aatn
— iRadio (@ThisisiRadio) September 18, 2020
We had Joan Burton getting trapped in her car during the Jobstown protest in 2014 – a protest which Paul Murphy says he has no regrets about his role in.
Paul Murphy says he has no regrets over Jobstown protest https://t.co/opLyJJT6dg
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) August 15, 2022
Some Sinn Féin protests have seen incidents of minor pushing and scuffles over the years. In 2010, Sinn Fein TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, who is on the party’s Ard Comhairle today, literally forced his way past the gates of Leinster House with about 50 Sinn Féin activists, pushing through Gardaí, who were forced to draw their batons to keep the crowd back.
From 2010. A reminder. "Batons were drawn as gardai confronted a group of more than 50 Sinn Fein supporters who forced their way past the gates at Government Buildings." https://t.co/7QKY740bua
— David Quinn (@DavQuinn) September 21, 2023
If a load of rightwing anti-vaxxers forced their way into the Dáil, we all know we would never hear the end of it until the end of time. It would be Ireland’s January 6th Capitol insurrection.
During a BLM George Nkencho protest in 2020, protesters ran amok at Eurospar after the fact and intimidated staff.
Staff and customers trapped in Hartstown Spar..
Protesters can be heard shouting "I hope you die, I Hope you die you fucking white bastards"
How on earth is this going to help anyone or anything? #JusticeforGeorgeNkencho pic.twitter.com/r3RGzaAxZy
— Devala_K (@ox_dev) December 31, 2020
The point is obviously not to say that any of this is OK – it’s clearly not. The point is simply that in any movement, there’s going to be a certain amount of aggressive idiots with low impulse control who do stupid and unacceptable things, and that’s always been the case. To act like Wednesday’s scenes are so uniquely appalling and shocking that it justifies cracking down on the free speech rights of 50% of the political spectrum is just disingenuous nonsense.
One can condemn intimidation and forceful scenes, without having a full-on meltdown. There are very legitimate conversations to be had around immigration, gender ideology, free speech, and more. And there are many normal and intelligent people who want to debate these issues sensibly. It’s likely that there were people at the protest on Wednesday who didn’t even agree with what happened, let alone in broader political circles.
A couple of individual pillocks being a bit shouty and pushy in front of the Dáil doesn’t invalidate the concerns of large chunks of the population, and we should have the honesty and good sense as a society to put these things in their proper perspective.