79 Responses to Icelandic protests against government and banks

  1. Jug O` Punch says:

    Well maybe the Icelandic people are finding their balls.Or rediscovering their viking heritage.Either way that video showed some pretty uncomfortable cops. Priceless.

  2. GLUAISTEAN says:

    AND WHEN THEY DO FIND THEIR BALLS – MAYBE THEY CAN EXPLAIN TO THE PADDIES IN THE BANNANA REPUBLIC WHAT THEY ARE….

  3. Loco Lobo says:

    Those are some serious people doing some serious shit. Invite them over, they’ll scare the shit out of the bankers. While their doing it you all can sit in the house or in a pub with a pint and a snack and watch the happenings on TV, that way you won’t get locked up.

  4. Fragrant Peter says:

    “Members of both the ruling coalition and the opposition have had different responses to last night’s protests in front of parliament, but they do seem to agree on one thing – relieving household debt should be the first priority.”

    http://grapevine.is/Home/ReadArticle/Parliament-Responds-to-Protests

    This country; no serious protests and the ruling coalition says that the debts of the banks are the first priority.

  5. I used to think that ‘civil disobedience’ was an oxymoron, but not after seeing that.

    Although it does feel that things could turn ugly at any minute. i.e. Bjork could turn up.

  6. on the dry says:

    i am all for this how do we start

  7. on the dry says:

    shane ross and nick webb new book wasters might start it. for the first time in weeks i have work to go to

  8. Twenty Major says:

    A fair point Lung. Who is out Bjork? We should be warned

  9. Bronagh Gallagher perchance?

    11054566_tml.jpg

  10. The Cap'n says:

    Luckily for the Icelanders they have an effective system for holding public representatives to account.

    For Irish politicians there is no such system other than a hokey election based on a corrupted electoral roll and the notorious rural Fianna Fail ‘vote early, vote often’ system every five years. Its a bent and ragged copy of ‘democracy’ which only exists in theory and not in reality.

    We should look to the Icelanders and make sure we install a power of recall for knacker politicians so they can be dumped outside election periods-

    There are effectively no sanctions for corrupt or inept politicians in Ireland because they have no trouble getting the laws bent for themselves and in the final resort getting a paid mouth to ‘prejudice’ a possible case against them.

    The judiciary and the Gardai are appointed by the corrupt so there’s no point expecting any effort from that direction.

  11. Action Man says:

    ‘there’s no point expecting any effort from that direction.’

    The only effort they’d put in is in making sure we don’t protest like that!

  12. tomo says:

    Nice to see Vincent putting the boot in, wish he’d do it more often

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/1006/1224280471568.html

    I think part of the problem (apart from a seemingly genetic aversion to protesting) is that most people here aren’t REALLY suffering. I don’t know personally one single person who’s lost their house. Virtually everyone I know is working. I mean on a day to day basis, basically everyone I know is doing ok. I grew up in a solidly working class suburb of North Dublin, and ended up living quite close to it, in a similar area. Families stick together and help each other if someone loses a job, or gets behind with the mortgage. Everyones complaining about how fucked we are, but really, most people are just getting on with it.

  13. The Cap'n says:

    That may be the case now Tomo but the wave is just curling over and hasn’t hit the beach yet for the majority.

  14. Alfie says:

    The Irish haven’t got the guts to protest, apart from talking out of the corner of their mouths, and looking out under eyebrows.
    The Russians want their money back, so pay up, shut up, and preserve you’re cowardice, the Gulag is waiting.
    You’ll be begging the English to come back and beat some sense into your thick sculls, soon.

  15. Holemaster says:

    Tomo has a point. But I also think that many people don’t tell others how badly off they are.

    But the real reason to protest is against corrupt government. That must change.

    Also, I was in contact last year with one of the organisers of the Icelandic protests. She told me that the movement there wasn’t centrally led apart from one or two commentators in the press. Mostly it was people getting off their asses and going out.

  16. Holemaster says:

    Is Alfie a Chelsea supporter?

  17. noddy says:

    “That may be the case now Tomo but the wave is just curling over and hasn’t hit the beach yet for the majority.”
    100% correct Cap’n. The 20 bn deficit hasn’t been dealt with in any meaningful way yet.

  18. Action Man says:

    ‘Is Alfie a Chelsea supporter?’

    Dunno but he’s definitely a cunt!

  19. noddy says:

    What’s the chanch we’ll see this show on the Telly?
    SFA?

  20. The Cap'n says:

    Poor old Alfie is probably an Ulster Loyalist sniggering at the problems of the Republic.

    I wouldn’t worry about them or the Brits. The Brits have been America’s white niggers since World War Two as recent history shows.

    There’s nothing funnier than a Brit castigating the Irish for being in debt to another culture.

    The British are nothing more than an American protectorate off the coast of Europe.

  21. Fiona says:

    I love it.

    “Make some noise”

    No parties, no vested interests, no background noise, just a time and place. And lots of noise-making things.

    Leinster House, 6pm, Wed 20th October?

  22. The Cap'n says:

    Works in Rome … a form of protest that is thouands of years old and dates back to the Caesars … the tapping of sticks against cobblestones from the back streets of Rome is an ominous sound to any Roman politican.

  23. Jo says:

    Hmm… what kind of noise would cause our politicians to feel a primal shudder of terror? The slap of a wooden spoon, maybe. Where are all their mammies who taught them so well? Maybe we should enlist them.

    It’s true – there’s a lot of people reading here every day – lots of people blogging about how bad it al lis. Should be enough bodies for a nice noisy protest.

  24. Crank says:

    Why can our news not be videoed in such a wonderful, cinematic way instead of the washed out, out of focus, oddly coloured effort that RTE usually comes foists upon us (for €155.00 pa)?

    Secondly, who wouldn’t want to toast marshmallows on the pyres of Kildare Street? Now there’s an incentive to protest.

    As a true Irishman I say – If you start the fires, I’ll bring the toasting forks.

  25. Jo says:

    Could flaming marshmalllows be flung off sticks to splatter on the walls of the Dail? Spelling out protests, maybe. I really like that idea.

    And an effigy of Brian Cowen made of Marshmallow, like in the end of Ghostbusters.

  26. The Cap'n says:

    We could be useful by each researching unusual methods of protesting off the net and putting the suggestions on a thread on a forum.

    Maybe we could get Twenty hauled in as well and that’d be gas.

  27. The Cap'n says:

    I meant ‘terrible’ there instead of ‘gas’.

  28. Jo says:

    Yes. Terrible.

    ‘Contoversial blogger scapegoat for Country’s ills. Cap’n Sniggers from afar.’

  29. The Cap'n says:

    If they lifted Twenty I think that’d be enough to spark off a serious disturbance.

    He’s one of the few people prepared to call it like it is on his blog.

    When he does sound off about the corrupt boyars its like an antidote to the Independent.

    He’s probably got the Dundalk subsidiary of GCHQ peering into his bins most nights by now anyway.

  30. Snifflecry says:

    Until the unemployed are mobilised no protests will happen – they have no leadership.

    And they will be fucked over again the coming budget.

    It’s true for what Tomo says that the rest ( employed) are not hurting (enough) yet.

    And Vincent Brown is correct – the system is broken – there is no viable politic in Ireland.

    This is the root of the issue – all national issues – it’s the system which must change.

    But there is no sentiment for such a change, only anger and resentment and shouts for an election.

    Nothing good can come from traditional politics – it’s like Vinnie says, the old ways won’t work anymore.

    The people should take time to understand a different way to govern ourselves.

    We have time.

    Better to make an late, informed, decision then a bad one.

  31. Action Man says:

    Oh Yeah Twenty, we forgot to mention, you have been elevated to the status of Messiah and are soon to be martyred for the cause! Heh!

  32. Action Man says:

    ‘As a true Irishman I say – If you start the fires, I’ll bring the toasting forks.’

    That’s the problem Crank, no-one is willing to start the fires!

  33. The Cap'n says:

    Yeh- sorry about that Twenty but you’ve just been named the new Liberator while you were out havin’ a piss.

  34. Holemaster says:

    Twenty, if there’s a Ford Mondeo hanging around with a three or four digit number after the ‘D’ then you’re fucked, especially if it’s black. They’re the real cunts.

  35. Heywood Jablome says:

    Those poor people – reduced to eating roasted marshmallows around a bonfire. I’m surprised they didn’t BBQ a few cod for the masses, or have they overfished the stocks again?

  36. maggot says:

    Ireland – Twinned with Anfield.

  37. Conan Drumm says:

    Right that’s it! I’m off out on a burning spree! If we burn enough the insurance and rebuilding work should put us back in credit.

    Oh hold on, it’s raining.

  38. porridge says:

    always look out for the extra aerial on the car – dead giveaway is branch or some other type of government stooge. also, check under the car every so often:
    http://gizmodo.com/5655514/want-to-know-if-the-fbi-is-tracking-you-look-for-one-of-these

  39. Alfie says:

    Voting machines for sale, that should bring in a few bob, the dutch sold them to the Irish, the Indians will scrap them, the Chinese will recycle them, the Italians sell them back to the Irish as hand driers, and English shipping will transport them from place to place, it’s good to see Ireland doing their bit for world trade.
    But the Russians still want their money back, good luck, gulag.

  40. Action Man says:

    So what do we protest against?

    The Bank Bailout? It’s going ahead.

    A General Election? While I firmly believe that the cunts that got us into this mess should be tarred, feathered, jailed and banned from ever entering politics again, what is the alternative. The bank bailout is going ahead regardless of who gets in.

    The only thing that we can protest for that future generations might look back and say, Well done would be for complete political reform.

    Abolish the Seanad and transfer powers to local councils preventing the likes of Jackie Healy Cunt and co from entering politics and having a stranglehold on national issues just because he’s on the promise of a Leprechaun Interpretive Centre in fucking Dingle!

  41. morgor says:

    Will you fuckers go out and protest please? I tried briefly but fuck all people turned up.
    Maybe if the system of government in Ireland changes i’ll head back to Ireland in the next decade, but I won’t hold my breath.

  42. Holemaster says:

    I was in the camera shop on Camden Street one day when a bloke came in to collect an array of equipment including lost distance lenses and high tech camera gear. He was quite open about it and chatting to the owner.

    His car, yes, an 06 Black Mondeo, was parked outside. But he wasn’t a cop, he was army, wearing plain clothes. The number plates were army, as in silver on black, no IRL, no county name above the number. Also had a blue light attached to the inside of the windscreen.

    He was full-on army spook I reckon. On his way up to Matt the Rashers to spy on Twenty.

  43. Heywood Jablome says:

    Seems like there’s shortage of opportunities to protest for thems that really wants to…

    http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest021010.html
    http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest011010.html
    http://www.eirigi.org/campaigns/onepercent.html
    http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest300910.html

    How bad do things have to get before our cosseted and deluded middle classes get up off their arses and take to the streets?

  44. Twenty Major says:

    Twenty, if there’s a Ford Mondeo hanging around with a three or four digit number after the ‘D’ then you’re fucked, especially if it’s black. They’re the real cunts.

    Will keep my eyes peeled. I reckon I’m safe enough though.

    Oh Yeah Twenty, we forgot to mention, you have been elevated to the status of Messiah and are soon to be martyred for the cause! Heh!

    I live to give. Or die to give, as it were.

  45. sheepshagger says:

    The apathy is a hangover of Roman Catholic
    indoctrination.Docile sheep presenting their
    butts for The Man’s exploitation.

    Name a Roman Catholic country in Europe,
    South America or Asia which has not had a
    fascist governing elite acting with the
    blessing of the church. You can’t!

    Ireland will never be free until the last
    priest is strangled with the last copy of
    The Independent.

  46. Heywood Jablome says:

    Sorry, meant to write ‘NO shortage of opportunities to protest’ at 44 above.

    Fuckin Branch must’ve lifted it from the original post…

  47. Robert (another one) says:

    What bothers me is that when the riots come (and there are some in the gardai who are sure they will) the rioting will take place in working class areas, and this will make no difference, because those areas are fucked and have always been fucked. All they will provide is a light show for the chattering classes and a hard-on for the tabloids.

    If you want to effect change, walk away from Leinster House, up Baggot Street and beyond and start the riots on the more expensive parts of the monopoly board. Only when the misruling elite in their Aylesbury Road this and their Foxrock that can’t leave their homes will this be treated properly, as opposed to the hand-wringing then indifference any riot in Finglas / Tallaght would receive.

    Attack property not people, respect the guards, they’re angry public servants too remember, but remember, the judge you are called up in front of is the guy who drinks with the guy who owes the guy all that development loan money. So perhaps we’re still fucked.

  48. Holemaster says:

    I hear National Roads might be tolled.

    I wonder do the Government know that it’s probably illegal to do that and that you have to provide a reasonable alternative untolled route.

    National roads are already funded by road tax whereas new motorways are PPPs, hence the toll. And in fairness, motorways were all mostly built in the last 15 years. National roads have been around for decades.

    Totally unfair and very flawed thinking.

  49. Conan Drumm says:

    Robert, don’t forget The Burnaby, Greystones.

    And a mechanical breakdown that regrettably blocked the gates of 166 houses.

  50. Alfie says:

    Don’t worry about the roads being tolled, in a couple of years time the only ones using them, will be the Red Cross and some other British Charities, handing out food, Prozac, and Temazepam.

  51. Holemaster says:

    Alfie.

    Shameless on Channel 4. That’s your country, that is.

    At least we have a bit of substance to us here.

  52. fill3rup says:

    Here Alfie:Good luck with the imminant US Military Al Queida bombings..

  53. on the dry says:

    robert please burn ashtons of clonskeagh. but not osheas

  54. Alfie says:

    That’s not substance you got there, that’s delusion, could be from substance abuse.

  55. sheepshagger says:

    HM while Alfie’s rant does sound a bit
    like Ian Paisley of old I think you do
    a disservice to Shameless.
    The two central families are of Irish
    extraction and display compassion and
    wisdom at times.
    In Britain they do jail politicians
    for corruption and perjury unlike here
    where a lot of the corruption is still legal.
    Both societies have their flaws and good
    points.The N.H.S.works well and is free
    at the point of access and people have
    more personal freedoms than here and seem
    more inclined to protest.Popular protest
    scuppered the poll tax and in Scotland
    the privatisation of water.

  56. Holemaster says:

    Sheepshagger. Do you make good points alright. Maybe Alfie could come over and help us out, teach us a few tricks. And he won’t have to worry about being bombed by the Real IRA because he’ll be here.

  57. Robert (another one) says:

    Re: Alfie

    In times of economic turmoil, we should conserve our supplies, therefore may I suggest we stop feeding the troll.

  58. on the dry says:

    time for stout

  59. sheepshagger says:

    I wonder what is fuelling Alfie’s anger?
    I think he must come from the North and be
    one of the few true blues that still exist
    up there. Having travelled to and fro many
    many times over the years I felt a lot of
    sadness for a people whose ‘culture’ consisted
    of one instrument- the lambeg – and dressing
    up to look like American majorettes or cheap
    parodies of English business men. Now there
    is a very rich Ulster Scots culture of music
    and verse but that has little to do with
    Orangism.Britishness is nothing to do with the
    Union Jack and loyalty to a German/Dutch crown
    – Britain existed long before England did and
    the Romans found the people there very
    uncooperative.

  60. The Cap'n says:

    I wonder is Alfie ‘pure Anglo-Saxon’..? I’ve not seen a mongrel win at Crufts yet.

  61. Brother Shamus says:

    There’s a really cool documentary I saw on RTE a while ago chronicling the aftermath of the crash in Iceland by following various people around as everything falls apart around them as well as interviewing the people responsible. It’s called ‘God Bless Iceland’ and it’s brilliant. Watching it you realise that things aren’t as bad over here as they are over there, their whole country has literally ground to a halt. The Icelanders themselves come out of it really well, very good natured, funny people at the end of their rope. If Ireland didn’t have the EU to help, things would have gone the same way here as they did over there and we probably would all end up spontaneously protesting because we wouldn’t have any other choice. Here’s the trailer:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMvekzd-Vfg

  62. Holemaster says:

    And I wonder does he know that King Arthur IS a legend.

  63. sheepshagger says:

    And that many Ulster Scots rebelled against the Crown and it’s German army in the Americas

  64. sheepshagger says:

    By the way can anyone suggest a decent pub in
    Ballsbridge? An oxymoronic question perhaps but
    I’m here for a night and the leafy streets are
    driving me mad

  65. Twenty Major says:

    Crowes on Merrion Rd used to be good – don’t really drink around there though.

  66. sheepshagger says:

    thanks

  67. Alfie says:

    King Arthur was great mate of St Patrick’s,they used to play spot the heathen around Wales and Brittany, and of course Hibernia.

  68. Holemaster says:

    Sheepshagger. Make your way to Slattery’s in Beggar’s Bush. It’s a short walk down Shelbourne Road towards, well, Beggar’s Bush.

  69. Holemaster says:

    St. Patrick was actually real. There are several accounts of him in written documents from the time. He wasn’t however the first Christian to set up in Ireland. There were Christian settlements before he arrived. In fact, St. Patrick mainly set about converting other English who had fled or migrated to Ireland.

    Whereas King Arthur was a legend made up by a Chronicler of the time to try and counter-act the dominance of Norman culture. He was a bit of a News of the World type, you know, making stuff up.

  70. sheepshagger says:

    Thanks.Now I’ll start to feel at home in
    elegant suburbia and if I were to stay much
    longer the ambiance might infuse itself into
    my very being and I could morph into something
    representative of all I dissaprove of.

  71. Heywood Jablome says:

    McCloskey’s on Donnybrook Main St isn’t a bad spot either, 5 mins walk up Herbert Park Rd from Ballsbridge.

  72. Alfie says:

    HM,you’re a font of knowledge you seem to know a lot about a lot,and for some one who knows so much I expect you know, your PLACE

  73. Holemaster says:

    I wish I was a font. I think I’d be Gill Sans Bold Italic.

  74. itchybollix says:

    Great link, great protest. I’ll be emailing that to the masses – “THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT”! Irish health and safety fucktards would ban the bonfire and we’d all mumble and amble off.

    I nealry broke me bollix running out of the makingbabies.ie link. jesus. that was an awful fright.

  75. GLUAISTEAN says:

    AND THE PADDIES IN BANNANA LAND DO WHAT EHY HAVE ALWAYS DONE – TALK TALK TALK…..
    THINGS ARE NOT GOING TO CHANGE BOYOS!

  76. MiamiDonkey says:

    Have to agree with Gluaistean about the talk talk talk. We’re all still feeling far too comfortable with the way shit is.

    Someone’s gotta do something drastic. I know that use of pronoun immediately places the responsibility with somebody else and not me or anybody reading this. So I suppose that’s the mindset we have to change. The government shan’t turn around and do something for the people so we need to make like those Iceland guys and set some shit on fire

  77. Mosheen says:

    Considering what the Icelanders have gone through, the protest on that video is miserable. Nobody speaking, just belting things to make noise as if the words were all used up. Depressing.

  78. Pingback: Bank heywood toast yeah

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

You can add images to your comment by clicking here.