Jailing of Mick Wallace TD

Mick Wallace, the Independent TD for Wexford, has today been jailed for attemping last Summer to inspect a U.S. military aircaft at Shannon airport to see if there were any arms on board. 

Mick Wallace was kind enough to launch my most recent collection of poems at the 2014 Cúirt Festival, having previously published one of my poems, about the abortion issue, on his website. 

Here is an article I wrote last Summer on the occasion of Mick's arrest, alongside Clare Daly TD who participated in the same action.

What Mick Wallace and Clare Daly did that day stands in the proud political tradition of direct action and civil disobedience. It is the sort of thing people such as James Connolly and Constance  Markievicz would have done, and in their time, did do; it is an action most TDs are far too cowardly to even contemplate, even for a cause they notionally support. 

I re-dedicate this poem to Mick Wallace because I think, in the circumstances, it is appropriate.

It says a lot about our political system that Mick Wallace is in jail tonight for taking part in a protest, while other people are not in jail and, as things stand,not likely to ever end up in jail. Not even for a night.