The police were waiting in the morning. Apparently they did not know the community and protestors were going to the National protest in Dublin. So, with nothing else to do the Guards followed the bus for 30 minutes.

The Dublin protest, for this aging and increasingly cynical journalist, was exactly what nearly all protests I have covered in the last six years. Walk from A to B. Although on this occasion it was more like A to A, round in a loop.

The group of masked politicians running through the streets of Dublin city centre with a huge yellow pipe was certainly more interesting, for me – handing out brown bribery envelopes, slamming beer guts together and trying to get a smile on a Guards face, which is not an easy thing to do these days.

The wonderfully objective RTE News did it’s classic reporting of the day, yet again. Their evening news report claimed “over 600 people” protested. Yet, this video footage would easily put the numbers at over 1000 by the end, as the demonstration came to an abrupt and somewhat pointless halt outside the central post office. But, RTE News, being the muck-raking video representation of a soiled three-month old nappy that it is, would never be allowed to say 1000 people. No, just “over 600”.

Outside the GPO offices, politician after politician took to the microphone on the back of a Shell to Sea van to declare their unlimited support of the campaign. This journalist said, “Fuck this for a game of soldiers,” and evacuated the area immediately.

After all, where were they when these wonderful, superbly friendly members of the local community with a do-anything-for-you attitude were getting battered, beaten and thrown in bog land ditches?

But, that is just this journalist’s opinion. I have no faith, or even respect for any politician I have had the misfortune of meeting, or just being in their damp and mouldy presence.