Limerick student organising national day of protest against “the next shower”

By Tomás Heneghan

 A University of Limerick student has begun preparations for a national day of protest he is calling against the next government.

Andrew Roberts (21), who is originally from Co. Kildare, has planned his preemptive protest for March 10th, the day the Dáil is to sit again.

Mr Roberts told An Focal he believed the people of Ireland should be prepared for a fight after the upcoming general election.

He explained: “I don’t care who gets in next. Will it really make a difference? No – So we need to be prepared. The next shower will be just as bad.”

However Mr Roberts also told An Focal he had no intention of voting in the election at the end of this month.

“Why would I bother voting? Sure, it wont make a difference, they’re all the same anyway,” he said.

Mr Roberts admitted he was registered to vote since last February when students in at the university had given him a voter registration form to fill in in the lead up to the marriage referendum in May.

“I voted for gay marriage because that mattered to people, it made a difference to people’s lives. What will voting for politicians do?”

Referring to the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution, Mr Roberts added: “What we need is a referendum to repeal the eighth now.”

Asked how such a referendum would be delivered, Mr Roberts told An Focal “it just would be” and said a protest was certain to deliver this referendum and more.

He added that electing politicians who support holding such a referendum was irrelevant, despite it being a government decision to hold any such referendum.

He concluded: “We need to protest college fees, government spending and the decisions being made by government. Voting for politicians wont make a difference. Protest is the answer, even if it’s just you standing by yourself outside the front of your university with a placard, yelling slogans at no one in particular.”