Dublin Mid West: Rob Connolly

The first three months of 2012 could turn out to be an historic period in the modern political and social life of this State. It could be when the quiet majority of the population takes a decisive stand against shouldering any more burdens to bail out the major bankers, speculators and bondholders of Europe at the behest of the unholy trinity of the EU/IMF/ECB with the Fine Gael/Labour government as its agent. And the potent weapon they can wield is a boycott of the registration and payment of the newly imposed Household Tax.

Ten years ago, on 21 July, 2001, as many as 300,000 workers and young people marched angrily through the streets of Genoa. It was the culmination of a week of protest against the G8 summit held in the city and presided over by George Bush. Their numbers had been swelled by outrage against the killing on the previous day of a young protester – Carlo Giuliano – in Alimonda Square by the forces of the Italian state. This demonstration was also attacked and broken up by police using tear-gas and wielding batons indiscriminately.

After months of a delay the Murphy Commission Enquiry into Child Abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese has at last been published. Detailed in it is yet more details of the abuse of vulnerable children by priests in Dublin from the 1950s to the 1990s and the active cover up of this abuse by a succession of Archbishops.