Protests fuelled by years of growing disquiet

They’re obsessed with the weather out here. They never stop on about it. There was a shower of hailstones a couple of miles up the road the other day and they had news reporters out with their cameras and soundmen to hear the noise of the hail on some galvanise structure. Now, in fairness, they were big hailstones, not far off golf ball size. But they arrived on cue, fell for a few minutes and then the sky cleared and the sun shone. 

In an hour-long news programme the other evening, there were three weather forecasts. There was a dump of snow in the mountains. At six thousand feet I would expect snow when there is some precipitation about. But, after the dump, the sun shone. It was good news for those who might be considering a bit of skiing at the weekend. There was a bit of wind and precipitation all week and the morning sky was overcast but, at ten or eleven o’clock, the sun shone. I don’t know what they would do if they had the sort of weather that you unfortunates have been having at home.

As you would expect, everything about California is big, including the televised forecast productions. The weather charts are often projected onto the floor of the studio with the weather presenter dancing around the floor (Joanna Donnelly would be in her element!) while pointing to the temperature, possible precipitation, pollen count, wind or humidity at various locations in the LA area. For this time of year, the temperatures are the salient features and, to my ignorant eye, they don’t seem to change very much. They hover around the mid-70s (just nice) to the high-80s which tells me it is time to get indoors. I just wonder why the obsession with the weather. Now, if the Angelenos had our weather with its wonderful variety and four or five seasons contained in the one day then I could understand.

You might think we are the only country in the world with a problem of potholes but that is not the case, though I suspect we have bigger and better potholes than most. Water, or more precisely, the lack of proper drainage is the main cause of potholes at home and the same, believe it or not, is true of Los Angeles. They don’t have anything like our rainfall and as far as I can see their drainage systems are superior, but they have potholes to deal with.

According to the Los Angeles Times the number of potholes in LA jumped early this year after an intense rainy season soaked the city (they had over 18 inches of rain, we had fifty days of rain with one or two inches, at least, per day!). Residents reported over 6,700 potholes in January and nearly 5,000 reports were submitted again in February and March. Now I don’t know how many were reported in Mayo, but I suspect very few because there is a feeling that reporting potholes is a waste of time. They would appear to take the problem a bit more seriously in LA where they have 23,000 miles of street to repair and where the Bureau of Street Services, which has responsibility not only for pothole repairs but also to strengthen the street network and prevent future potholes.

The Bureau relies on residents to raise problems but have also recently engaged the services of Waze and Waymo in an attempt to get ahead of the pothole problem. For my uninitiated readers, Waze is an app that provides traffic information and directions to your phone, while Waymo is a self-driving car operation (yes, they exist and operate here in LA, much to the consternation of 'normal' drivers). Under the partnership with the Bureau of Street Services, the Waymo app will detect potholes in the city and the data will be made available to the Bureau through Waze’s traffic sharing platform. The Waze app will warn motorists as they approach a pothole. I don’t know how that would work in Mayo and I think it is just as well we don’t have driverless cars. We have enough problems.

You would think there might have been a big hullaballoo about the Artemis II journey around the moon and the return of the four astronauts to a safe splashdown here off San Diego. Just recall how Charlie Haughey was able to get to Paris to see Stephen Roche in the yellow jersey cycling up the Champ Elysée to win the Tour De France. There was no sign of Mr Trump at the splashdown or indeed at the press conference in NASA where the astronauts were feted. The wags here decided that Mr Trump was too busy dressing up as Jesus and a medical doctor tending to Pope Leo. To most Americans it is okay for Mr Trump to go to war in Iran and bomb thousands to death, but it is a different matter when he acts the goat and belittles the Pope. There was a change of mood here, but not something that might oust the President.

And it would seem there is a change of mood at home. I hadn’t left the country a wet week but things started to disintegrate. The genuine people of Ireland took to the streets and mounted a blockade. The frustration that has been building up for months now came to a head. 

Looking at it all the way from Los Angeles it was clear that the Government was way too complacent in dealing with the fuel crisis. Blaming the war in Iran for the rising cost of fuel was a facile response but did not excuse the failure of the Government to address the concerns of a people at breaking point. Any government in touch with the people should have seen that the measures so tardily introduced should have been introduced much earlier.

Now, it is also right to say that there were sinister elements at work and that they took over the protests. The poor farmers and the hauliers who were seeking solutions to genuine difficulties found that they were not in control of the situation and things got out of hand. For several years now it is clear that there is growing disquiet among ordinary people because of the pressures they have been living under but the people who frequent the Dáil and who grant themselves extraordinary pay increases have been cossetted from the realities of real living conditions. They have lost touch with reality.

It’s only a few months ago that I advised you all that Fianna Fáil was once more in disarray and that Micheál Martin’s race was run. It has taken time and a quite ridiculous and reputational-damaging blockade of the country to bring the Government to its senses. But the real problem persists. People have lost faith in the leadership. Apart from the dyed-in-the-wool Fianna Fáilures, people have lost faith in Micheál Martin. Pleasant, competent, careful with words but lacking empathy, Micheál needs to go. He will probably convince himself and his acolytes that the country needs him now with the EU Presidency just around the corner. The Fianna Fáil party will (in the interests of the country, mind you!) rally around and Micheál will survive until the end of the year when, if he has any sense, he will decide to go.

Mind you when you look at what might step up to replace him, it is hard to have any great confidence. Fine Gael has escaped the wrath of the people for now but that will soon change. We will then be left with the choice of Mary Lou and her united opposition. That will be fun.

Thought for the day 

Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending - Longfellow