Cost Of Living Coalition Demand Government Action

Dublin Residents March Against Rising Prices and Corporate Greed

by Kyle Shafer

On Saturday, the 12th of November, Dublin 8 residents, motorists and shoppers could look out their windows and store fronts to see the Cost of Living Coalition marching through the neighbourhood streets demanding the government take steps to address issues with the rising price of energy, housing, groceries and transportation. The group chanted cries of “Freeze Profits not People”, “When Prices Rise Nationalize” and “Prices are Rising, So Are We”.

The Dublin 8 group of the demonstration met at 12pm outside of Saint Catherine’s Church and called on those around to join as the group marched to Dolphins Barn Bridge where they joined forces with other groups.

“They are coming from Fatima, Crumlin, Drimnagh and were all meeting at Dolphins Barn,” I was informed by Mary, a Dublin 8 homeowner and pensioner with 60 years of political activism behind her.

As the group marched their message was met with applause from balconies, hooks of approval from truck drivers and Deliveroo bikers and even a beauty salon on Cork Street had a brief pause to join them in a chant.

Once they reached Dolphins Barn and were joined by the other three marches their numbers were well over 100 people.

The protest was made up of a diverse group which included pensioners, political activists, mothers with their children in strollers, students from Trinity, DCU and Griffith College and a number of first-time protestors and ordinary people that responded to the flyers and street signs that had been spread to promote the day’s events.

Kenny, one of the event’s organizers said when asked to describe the coalition.

Many were independent but the majority of the group belonged to one or more of the organizations that make up the Cost-ofLiving Coalition. Members from the political parties, housing groups and community centres took turns to address the crowd before the group began chanting again. They finished with a chorus of the song “Whose Side Are You On,” a protest song that dates back to miners strikes in the 1930’s.