By Jimmy Rhatigan
IT IS as if we don’t have enough on our plates already with the Coronavirus attack.
Thankfully a majority of our people, not all mind you, are keeping the rules as outlined by our eminent medics.
And while, sadly, there are casualties as loved ones are stolen from us, there will come an end to a horrible war against an invisible enemy.
Unfortunately, having overcome the storm that is akin to World War 3, there could be the follow-up of the type of hurricane that will bring ill winds.
We do not wish to alarm our people but we believe that another possible twinning of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, could, in a different way be even more hurtful to the people of our country than our present hell on earth.
Any purse in the hands of power brokers will be a meagre one and the big question has to be:
Would you trust FF and FG to look after our most vulnerable or would they once again leave loopholes to protect their buddies in a Golden Circle?
The former have for generations been throwing us to the wolves, and in more recent times, vultures were invited to crucify families while stealing their homes.
Vote of confidence
Post General Election 2020 we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place.
Sensational results for Sinn Féin, a vote of confidence in pro SF politics and thumbs down perhaps to FF/FG politics, have left us with a contrary conundrum.
FF and FG have swapped the donkey’s reins for 100 or more years and despite a walloping from our people neither wants the ass straying to pastures new.
So lashing out the innuendo, pouring rhetoric and adding lots of abuse about bombs and bullets, the partners in the last government have cranked up the political war machine.
World War 4 looms.
Thankfully it won’t be fought in hospitals, nursing homes or indeed anywhere that people congregate, the fulcrum will be a financial slaughterhouse where those in power will decide who avoids the butcher’s knife.
Background is that FF and FG really don’t want to be allies and while our Civil War of yesteryear will be unfamiliar territory to our young, it remains to the fore in the minds of those who cling on to rancour and shun forgiveness.
Older people in particular will have many reasons to hope that the old reliable pairing of FF and FG doesn’t resurrect in tandem.
Haunting words
Leo Varadkar’s haunting words of another time when he said he would not sign a cheque for pensioners to heat their homes in the depth of winter will still be clear in the minds of our grey army.
In recent days there have been calls on our caretaker government to include our over 66 year olds and under 18s in Covid-19 Unemployment Support.
Varadkar’s retort was a merciless not a hope or something similar.
So the only conclusion we can draw is that Varadkar has little or no respect for our young, the Irish workforce of the future, nor has he even a smidgen of respect for our Grey Army, for decades one of the most solid battalions among our troops of respect.
Where Micheál Martin sits we are unsure.
But we suspect that in agreeing to talks with FG he is cosying up for a return to a somewhat flawed marriage.
And one has to ponder on whether it is the title of An Taoiseach that is uppermost in his mind.
Our great hope is that the principled ones in FF, including Eamonn O’Cuiv and our own John McGuinness will persuade Micheál to give the donkey a bit of leeway, perhaps to include SF and others who may agree to participation, in any talks for a future parliament.
That should not be a gargantuan task.
Peruse the following quotes: “People want change in this country. They want Fine Gael out of office.
Wringer of life
“We will not be entering into a grand coalition. The message is loud and clear, people want Fine Gael out of government. Fine Gael has been there too long and has not delivered for our people.”
You couldn’t make it up.
The words came from the sugar-coated lips of one Micheál Martin and were uttered in recent months.
So it seems that Martin wants to jump into bed with FG but at the same time doesn’t want to play footsie with its unlikely ally.
So where there is uncertainty there is hope for our people and God knows after being put through the wringer of life the men, women and children of the Republic of Ireland have earned the possibility of a positive future as opposed to the uncertainty of a financial crash of not too many moons ago, followed by the pain of a brutal virus.
Our doctors and nurses, bin men, retail workers, truck drivers, cleaner ladies and their ilk are heroes of courage and care who will lead us to victory in our battle with the Coronavirus.
When the storm settles it will up to our politicians, bankers, pharmaceuticals, money moguls and their fellows in capitalism to drag in their horns.
Risking their lives
It will be up to them to vacate the front benches of life which they have hogged for far too long and to ensure that the real people of Ireland, i.e. those who are risking their lives to care for our ill at this time will be foremost among our decision makers and dispensers of fair play.
Any dunces’ corner in a future class will be populated by charlatans of life who would view those we fondly call down to earth people as cannon fodder.
Those we fondly refer to as the salt of the earth have always been the scapegoats to pay the piper for the unscrupulous financial gurus who tend to make a mess of slave markets and then blame everybody else.
In God we trust.
Do we have enough politicians out there to merit the same respect?
