Take me to the River��

For the past twelve months, the people of Ireland have opposed the efforts of the Irish Government to introduce metered water charges that amount to an extra or double tax (for something they pay for, already). They’ve opposed the installation of meters in their own communities and on their own doorsteps, often with violent results and arrests, as the Irish police force has been engaged in the dubious role of protecting the meter installers against the public protests. They’ve also opposed the water tax with massive, nationwide protest marches.On one of these, in Dublin, some of the marchers assembled at Islandbridge, on the western end of the river Liffey that divides the city in two, with a plan to march along the riverside and join the other marchers at O’Connell bridge. Marchers were encouraged to wear blue clothes on the day to give the aerial impression of a river of protest in flow. The idea prompted me to write this poem, Take me to the River��.

By Dermott Hayes

Take me to the river

let me march

in a stream

of righteous anger,

powered by

a current of

indignation,

to say,

too far,

no further

to those who

would rob me

of my birthright,

my democratic

right,

my Constitutional

right,

to fight

for my right

to flow