The storming of the Dáil…

Well now. Here we go. It was clear from the photographs that the truck wasn’t driven into the gates, so much as through them. Presumably the driver didn’t know of, or ignored, the mechanical barrier that lies just inside the gates.

Interestingly the garda helicopter wasn’t on site until 8.50, but given that there was little (or nothing, yes, let’s go with nothing) it could reveal from the air that wasn’t apparent on the ground small wonder it was gone by 9.00 or so.

As a protest it was well thought out, the immobiliser being a particularly nice touch in that it delayed the removal of the offending vehicle. And as a defining image, well, any semiotician worth their salt will tell you the importance of concise clear-cut messages.

This will be short hand for the Anglo-Irish debacle for quite some time. Prepare for cartoons, perhaps even a quip on Jay Leno (I jest, sort of – by the way on a slight tangent anyone who read the not so ‘funnies’ in the Phoenix this fortnight will have realised, as I did, just how appallingly that interview will continue to play for Cowen).

On the other hand, as a long-time community activist of my acquaintance who rang me to to tell me the news said, in case being actually in work I wasn’t aware of what was going a relative stones throw away (which by the way I wasn’t having not heard the news), it’s really just a side-show. And this isn’t the storming of the Bastille. Tedious as it may seem it’s feet on streets and political activism that will blunt the policies of this government. And that, as we all know, is a fair bit more difficult even than driving a cement truck in through the gates of Dáil Éireann.