Ezra Levant reports from Dublin on April 10th as thousands of Irish truckers and farmers protest "absurdly high" fuel taxes, claiming diesel prices have doubled to over 600 euros per fill-up. Unlike the vaccine-mandate driven Canadian convoy, this economic uprising targets mass immigration, inflation, and housing costs, with police surprisingly supportive despite government threats of military enforcement. Levant highlights the stark contrast between the state broadcaster RTE's propaganda and grassroots unity, noting organizers fear martial law due to Ireland's limited jail capacity while blockading critical sites like the Irving Oil refinery. Ultimately, the episode suggests a profound democratic crisis where ordinary citizens reject the political class's ideological carbon taxes, demanding immediate relief from crushing economic burdens. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Ireland Strikes Like Ottawa00:14:46
Tonight, Ireland has a general strike over carbon taxes.
It's April 10th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
Edger Levant here for Rebel News.
I'm in the heart of Dublin, the capital of Ireland, although it feels a little bit like Ottawa, the capital of Canada, four years ago, because there is a trucker and farmer convoy protesting the government.
Well, that's exactly what happened in Canada four years ago.
You can see a lineup of tractors here.
No fuel, no food.
There's more tractors over here.
No farms, no food.
They're protesting by the thousands across Ireland.
A number of things happening all at once.
And the most acute issue are the absurdly high prices of fuel, including diesel fuel and what they call petrol, regular gasoline, we call it in North America.
And the fact that the government has jacked up taxes on these, even as world oil prices go up, it's become unbearable.
I spoke to one farmer earlier this morning who says it costs him more than 600 euros.
That's about a thousand bucks to fill up his tractor every time.
It's astonishing.
The prices, the government didn't run on a pledge to jack up taxes, but that's just the environmental extremists in every Western government.
They're net zero.
Their idea is to raise the price of fuel and people will use less of it.
Well, it doesn't work that way.
If you're a farmer, you need gasoline, you need diesel if you're going to take off your crops.
And these farmers, who are the backbone of any culture, I mean, if you want to have a prosperous society, You need cheap, plentiful fuel and cheap, plentiful food.
And the farmers are getting hit every way.
What's incredible and very reminiscent of Ottawa is how spontaneous these protests are.
There are some men and women who have been thrust to the front, and I guess you could call them protest leaders.
But like the trucker convoy in Canada, it's almost a last resort by the last people in Ireland who have any common sense just to do something.
That's exactly how it felt.
Back in Canada, the COVID crisis was the reason for the protest.
As you may know, Canada had some of the strictest lockdowns in the Western world.
And the last straw was when the government said truckers had to get jabbed to do their long hauls.
And of course, truckers are among the most solitary people, other than being a lighthouse keeper.
I can't think of a job that's more isolated.
And the truckers, that was just enough.
That was the final straw for them.
And so thousands of truckers went, converged on Ottawa.
It was a 100 kilometer long convoy, just astonishing.
And I think there's that same feeling here.
In Ireland, just like in Canada four years ago, there was a consensus of how things were lockdowns, mandatory jabs, fear mongering.
And all the political parties were united over there, but the people were over there.
I think it's similar here in Ireland.
The political class. is so unanimous on the key issues from fuel taxes to mass immigration to high housing prices and inflation.
It's almost like there's no political method that ordinary Irish people can express themselves.
Thank God the truckers and the farmers were there because they are the last preserve of common sense.
You know, George Orwell, in his book 1984, wrote, if there's any salvation, it lies with the proles.
That was his nickname for the proletariat, the working people.
And I think that the entire sophisticated political class and their media class here, remember, they have a massive state broadcaster called RTE.
That is just a propaganda voice for the government.
They've all failed.
And so to see this grassroots protest is sort of thrilling.
We're in the heart of Dublin, but this has been replicated all across Ireland.
And even at Ireland's refinery, which is actually a Canadian company, if I'm not mistaken Irving.
We drove early this morning.
We flew all night.
We landed early this morning.
A farmer there, but we decided to come to the heart of the city.
And I just want to point out one thing we're literally right in the thick of the city.
I don't know if you can see down there, it's something they call the GPO or the I think that stands for General Post Office.
It's really a symbolic place of the Irish Rebellion and it's a very historic place.
The River Liffey is just up there.
We really couldn't be more in the heart of Dublin.
And the roads are blocked, but this road that we're on here, but typically.
And we'll go down a little bit further.
Let's walk and talk.
They've left one lane free.
And there's a reason for that.
So emergency vehicles can go by.
And that is exactly what the truckers did in Ottawa, Canada.
They had their trucks in the city, but they let emergency vehicles go by because these are responsible people.
They're frustrated with what the government has done to them.
They're not looking to harm their fellow Irishmen.
They're looking to wake the country up.
I want to tell you one more thing, and I'm not going to say his name.
I don't want him to get in trouble.
When we landed this morning, we talked to the customs officer who said, Oh, who are you guys?
I said, We're journalists from Canada.
He said, Oh, what are you here to cover?
And I said, The fuel prices.
I didn't want to get too deep into it because I didn't want him to keep us out.
And he was excited and he said, Look at the video I took this morning.
And so he took out his cell phone and showed us the video of the M50, which is a major highway in Ireland.
He said, It took him an hour to get to work instead of the usual 15.
And I said, Well, How do you feel about that?
I thought he would be irritated.
Well, I guess he was a little bit irritated about spending 45 minutes more in his car.
But he said, I hope they win.
I was thrilled.
It was so exciting.
Then we had the same conversation with the car rental place.
Ordinary Irish people are sick of things.
They feel like the political class just isn't listening to them.
And whether it's mass immigration, too expensive housing, or fuel taxes, they want to change.
Is taxed.
I've talked to a number of people.
I want to get the official number, but I've heard 52%.
I've heard 60%.
To have these massive taxes on top of already high oil prices shows a government that's just out of touch, especially with the farmers.
Hey, we're going to continue walking and talking and doing our journalism.
We're going to interview these truckers.
We just got into the heart of the city.
I want to point out one more thing, which is how calm and low energy the police are.
And that's a very good sign.
Because over the last couple of days, the political class has absolutely panicked and they've literally deployed the Irish military as it is.
I've seen, in fact, that's what made us decide to come out here the video footage of armored personnel carriers and threats.
Well, as you can see, the police here, they're not wearing any SWAT uniforms.
They're dressed in their ball caps in very friendly mode.
They're not here in massive numbers.
And here's what I meant about the lanes.
You can see these lanes are blocked.
But you see this free lane here?
So, if there was an emergency vehicle, if there was a fire truck or an ambulance or a police car, it could get by no problem.
So, there's a kind of coexistence, at least for now.
Now, I want to tell you one more thing from Canada.
That's how it was at first, until the politicians, in that case Justin Trudeau, just decided they had had enough and they were being embarrassed on the world stage.
And they actually ordered martial law in Canada.
It's called the Emergencies Act.
They swept people off the streets, jailed the protest leaders.
And they seized the bank accounts of more than 200 protesters without legal process.
I have to say, the government of Mihail Martin and Simon Harris are exactly the kind of weasels who would do that.
And I'm a little bit worried that this is the calm before the storm.
Let's close by reading that homemade billboard Charity starts at home.
All us Irish have had enough government out now.
That's exactly the spirit of this protest.
And we'll be talking to truckers and farmers and ordinary Irish people all day.
I hopped on a plane last night with my videographer Efron because I started to see what was going on in Ireland.
We have a soft spot for Ireland.
We love it.
We've covered the immigration protest, and I knew we had to be here for this Canadian style trucker farmer protest.
Unfortunately, coming at last minute meant our flights were expensive more than $1,000 Canadian each.
If you can help me cover the cost of this trip, Please go to the truthaboutirland.com.
Unlike the state broadcaster RTE, we get zero taxpayer dollars, and that's precisely why we're able to tell you the other side of the story.
That's the truthaboutirland.com.
I'm Azrael Levan from Rebel News.
What's your name?
My name is Shane Dunn.
Hi, Shane, are you from Dublin?
No, I'm from a town about an hour from here, Kells County Mead, doing some tillage farming.
I also work in a hardware store as well.
Oh, yeah.
Here to kind of give me support to fellow members.
And it's a bit of a food bank here for people who are overnight.
Are you involved with this?
This is all donated by the local people here in Dublin.
Everyone.
The generosity we've got from everyone here is mind blowing.
There's 100% support behind because we're all in this.
Because if the government don't give a reduction in the fuel, the country's on a standstill.
So, we're here till we get answers.
I should tell you, when we.
Oh, there's some support.
There's a trucker honking his support.
Yeah, we're getting that all day.
This is all closed off for the last couple of days.
We opened this up last night to give a bit more relief because once we decided we were going to have a meeting, we said, look, seeing that we're getting a bit somewhere, we'll open some up.
You know, it's also a good idea to let ambulances and fire trucks through.
It has to happen.
You have to keep emergency services flowing because, look, it.
Everyone needs, if you're looked after, you have to get your treatment.
Now, I read an interesting comment online today.
You know, what's that group called?
Something Existence?
What's that group called again?
That environmental extremist group?
Like post petroleum existence?
What's that called again?
Shoot.
Extinction Rebellion.
Sorry about that.
Extinction Rebellion.
Yeah, you know, I forgot that.
So Extinction Rebellion is this.
Left wing group, sort of Greta Thunberg kind of thing.
They hate oil.
They block roads, like they sit in front of the roads.
I understand that a couple years ago they had a sit down meeting with the Irish transportation minister.
So they were blocking roads, but because they're left wing wackadoodles, they had a sit down with the transport minister.
How are you guys being treated by the government by comparison?
They're completely ignoring us.
Like they were on about bringing out the army to remove us.
Now, what happened?
Did they withdraw?
I mean, is that still going on?
I don't know.
We were a bigger army.
There's only 8,000 jail cells in all of Ireland, so you better start building more jails.
And they're all full.
That's right.
Yeah.
Well, is there any leadership, or was this sort of spontaneous?
This is kind of spontaneous, kind of without, and everyone kind of put the support behind it.
Because if you have anyone with any leadership, the government are basically gagging them.
So they can't gag the Joe public.
Now, I'm still learning about Ireland.
I'm sort of a beginner.
I've been here a few times.
I love it.
It seems to me that there's the political class that's disconnected from the people.
I think of the constitutional amendments to try and get motherhood out of the Constitution.
I think of keeping Maria Steen off the presidential ballot.
Like it feels like it's always a stitch up.
And it's a club that protects us.
It's all about them and us.
Yeah, it's all about them and us.
Is there any political movement that you have hopes for or that you trust?
I'm not really into politics myself.
Fair deal.
Fair enough.
It's just like we're here as individuals, farmers, bus companies, truckers, trying to survive.
Is anyone on your side?
Everyone here.
Everyone's against you but the people.
We've RTE News, we won't talk to them here.
I was going to say because they're hostile.
They are, if we talk to them, they're putting the different spinning things.
They're editing things and just making us look bad.
But Joe Public is coming up here.
We've people, local women, and.
Coming up with food, like we're inundated.
Yeah, you know, in Canada, when we had our trucker convoy four years ago, they had bouncy castles, they had hot tubs, it was a real festival kind of feeling.
Last night, here was music over in this truck over here, and it was like a party atmosphere.
We'd local women from this local area who couldn't normally stand here at night for safety reasons, safety reasons, and they felt safe.
We also have the The local drug addicts, whatever, they stayed away.
You know, because it's a rough neighborhood.
The boardwalk, I've been on the boardwalk, it's a lot of my.
That's a horn!
Now that's a horn!
This city has changed in the last 20 years.
Safety on the Boardwalk00:14:41
Irish nearly don't come here.
You know, I walked down the boardwalk last year and I introduced myself to every single person and said, Where are you from?
Every single one of them was not Irish.
Oh, yeah, non Irish, yeah, yeah.
Basically 10 minutes walk from where we're standing here.
It's like coming to a different country.
Well, listen, I wish you good luck.
I'm from Canada and we love our truckers and farmers.
And when I saw what was going on, I thought I've got to get over there because Canadians are going to be interested.
Have you heard about that Canadian trucker convoy a few years back?
Did that make the news out here at all?
I don't think so.
It was very similar, by the way, and it's very exciting to see it.
And I love the Irish tricolour too that I see flying on various vehicles.
Oh, yeah.
Look, everyone, you see, you can't stop the farmer, the builder.
They can stop everyone else, but we have the equipment to block everywhere up.
Men in boiler suits and dirty cement-covered boots built this country, but we've men in suits trying to break it down.
That's a very interesting observation.
Every country has to eat.
Every person has to eat three times a day.
Us farmers do it.
The truckers haul it to the supermarkets.
The backbone of the country.
Too many people are too far removed from the land where their food comes from.
They think it comes out of a supermarket.
They don't realize there's people out there growing the food to put it in there.
It doesn't come out in air.
They'll learn.
Well, I wish you good luck.
Nice talking with you.
Cheers.
You're a senior organizer, is that right?
Yeah, James Gagan from Westmead, agricultural contractor.
How far away is that from Dublin?
About 100 kilometers.
And are you a farmer yourself?
I'm an agri contractor, yeah.
What kind of stuff do you farm?
Beef and a machinery hire.
Plant hire, diggers, and tractors like these.
Do you have a vehicle in the protest here?
I do, yeah.
And when did you arrive?
I was here first morning.
I was the organizer.
I actually had to come and meet the police to set it up.
Well, tell me a bit about that, because we're from Canada and we had a big trucker convoy.
Yeah.
Some members of the police wanted to work with the truckers to keep it calm and smooth and keep a lane open for ambulances.
We did the same here.
Yeah.
Yeah, we kept a lane open on all the motorways for ambulances, 100%.
And do you talk to the police on a regular basis?
Every day.
Yeah, yeah, keep in contact with them and all the groups.
We have about 40 protests going all over Ireland and everyone is liaison with the gardens and working perfect.
Yeah.
Isn't that interesting?
I saw the deputy commissioner of the Guardie.
She's a Canadian woman, which really surprised me.
Her language, she said, we're moving to enforcement.
I'm sure you saw that video.
That really rubbed me the wrong way.
I was embarrassed.
They rubbed us as well the wrong way.
Yeah, I mean, first of all, she.
I was asked last night about what was my opinion of the army coming in as they were saying about enforcement.
And my reply back to them was, and this was on national television last night on RT Primetime, my answer back was, we've a bigger army.
I saw that clip of you.
My answer to the army coming to the streets is, we've actually a bigger army.
So we're not afraid of the army.
We're agri contractors, can't hire men.
The army will not move this protest.
And if any vehicle is touched on that protest, there'll be 10 more to replace it immediately.
Yeah, yeah.
So we're not afraid of the army.
We have far more power than they have.
Well, and I bet a lot of members of the army and I bet a lot of police support you.
Yeah, the army is not turning up for work.
How is the mainstream media in Ireland treating the protest?
Trying to discredit it at the start, trying to put fake news about it, trying to exaggerate fake news, pick out the bad points, but everybody can see through their fake bullshit.
Now, the police seem to be pretty calm about things.
Yeah, we have two police here.
There's a man from Canada.
He's wondering how are the police at us?
How are you feeling about the protests?
There's no hassle.
Peaceful protests.
How about the military?
I saw some armoured personnel carriers and I saw some I don't mind where they were going.
We have more armour than they have.
How is this going to end?
Because the politicians, they don't like to blink.
No, but they have no choice.
What do you think is going to happen?
We have a list of man's gone in.
They will be met to see when we go home.
When to meet them.
If they don't meet them, we don't go home.
Are you expecting to meet them today?
I have to today.
Can I ask who you're meeting with at have to?
In government buildings with government ministers.
Before you go, did you hear about the Canadian trucker convoy a few years ago?
Is that in any way an inspiration or a warning?
It would be, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Now, in Canada, they brought in martial law to end it.
They seized bank accounts.
Is that going to happen in Ireland?
It wouldn't happen here.
I wish you good luck.
Good luck.
Cheers.
Thank you very much.
There he is.
Very interesting.
I didn't realize that was the big boss.
He really is meeting with the government to talk terms.
He was on TV in Ireland last night saying similar things to what he said here.
He said they're going to need a bigger army if they're going to send the army after us.
That's tough talk, but that comes.
From confidence that he has the support not only of thousands of farmers and hauliers, which is what they call truckers here, but also from the general public.
You know, I can't help but being a little bit optimistic.
I hope he's right.
And that's how strong the people on the ground are on this.
And it's unbelievable.
I can't believe it's possible.
So, what's your advice to protesters if the army try to move them?
I can't see it possible because the machines that are parked up cannot physically be removed.
All right, well, we'll do our best.
We'll do our best with the microphone.
My name's Ezra, I'm from Rebel News in Canada.
What's your name?
Kean Donahoe.
Where are you from?
Calvin.
And are you a trucker or a farmer?
Tell me about yourself.
Oh, a bit of Everton, yeah.
So is this your rig or your family rig?
Yeah, close enough, yeah.
So I'm from Lara in County Calvin, Stallone.
Now, how long have you been parked in the heart of Dublin?
Oh, I've been parked there since Tuesday afternoon.
And tell me what motivates you?
Why are you doing that?
So the price of diesel there, it's cat at the minute, like it's only getting worse.
So you have to do something about it because it's only going up, you know.
Lot of people joining all over the country truckers farmers, bus drivers it feels spontaneous, um, what?
What's changed in the last few days?
Well, I suppose it's just like, um, we're coming up to silage season, stuff like that, and like you'd have common harvesters and stuff like that burn a lot of diesel and tractors and mowers and stuff like that, and so you wouldn't be long going through a couple of tanks of diesel and the price of green diesel.
Now, like you wouldn't find a building green diesel.
That's for farmers right yeah, tractors and stuff like that, yeah.
So how much is it to fill up A tractor?
Do you drive a tractor ever?
How much is it to fill up a gas tank or a diesel?
I was talking to one lad today, he says it's five six hundred euros.
Yeah, I wouldn't be far off it now.
Well, let me ask you because normally you park a vehicle for three days on this street, you're getting all sorts of tickets and fines.
Like they have to put diesel into their own cars and stuff like that.
Like, ever.
Sorry?
The garage park is here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, they place the lorries in position.
Oh, so you're saying the police actually told you where to park?
Yeah, they're all on our side.
Like, even there, you'd have the crack at them there and all that.
So, do you have like a leader who's talking to them or something?
Christopher Duffy there is doing a good old job.
He'll talk away.
So, they're sort of working with you to keep a lane open here and there, and the cops are fine, eh?
Yeah, working the way around.
Anyway, it's not too bad.
Now, I saw on the internet some military vehicles.
Have you seen any of those?
No, I haven't seen them anyway.
I don't know what the story is of them, but.
That'd be the last thing you'd want to see.
I come in there.
I have an important update on that one.
I met a retired army sergeant this morning cycling through the city on his bike.
And I said to him, You can stop there and stop the traffic and play a part.
He says, He's going to the gym with his two sons.
I says, Well, listen, if the army come in later on, would you come back in?
Because you know yourself, an army general has never retired, especially in a situation of an emergency.
Yeah, they pull them back in.
He said, No need.
They're already stood down.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Everyone's feeling the effects of it.
How do you think this is all going to end?
Do you think the government's going to blink?
Politicians don't like to lose face, if you know what I mean.
They don't like to.
To lose a battle of wills, yeah, that's it.
But they're fairly screwing us there at the minute.
Like, it's they have to cut it back at this stage.
Like, we're in too far now to pull out at this stage.
So, see what happens.
Well, I wish you good luck, and uh, uh, maybe we'll talk to you again.
We're going to be here for a while just going up and down talking to folks.
So, thanks for spending some time with us.
No, well, I would hold thanks very much.
Right on, cheers.
All right, what's the name of this highway we're on right here?
The N7 and Ace.
It's a pretty big highway.
And uh, are you driving one of these trucks?
No, I'm only 15.
We father owns them, it's a family owned business, don't haul it.
So, there's a lane or two open over there, but this side's completely closed, eh?
Yeah, so hopefully now the guards will block the lane because there's more tractors coming down now and machinery to stop most lanes.
So, you and your dad are doing this together?
Yeah.
That's some father son bonding.
He said to come down.
We all blocked it ourselves this morning, and my father got all the lorries down, but a few of us joined in as well and stuck with us on the way down.
And have the police come by?
They've only come up this way, but they've come up this way and stopped to talk to us, but they haven't come down this way yet.
And when they stopped to talk to you, what do they say?
Decided to pay for it.
Let's keep it up.
Really?
They said keep it up?
Yeah.
Is that a fact?
Ah, yeah.
Well, so what are your plans?
How long do you think you can stay here?
I mean, these are pretty big rigs.
It would be tough to tow one of these things.
Stay here now as long as you can and get the fuel down.
So your family's in the haulage business?
Yeah.
And I mean, I suppose your dad would have the statistics, but what's it like to fill up a petrol tank in one of these rigs?
It's not easy.
Mostly if you're doing long runs, it nearly takes 200.
50 or 300 litres, so it's quite expensive.
So, and what's the price that would be diesel in these things?
So, how much would it be to fill up a tank?
Could be maybe a couple hundred quid, nearly a thousand euro, maybe.
So, I wouldn't know off the top of my head now, in all fairness.
Well, that's very interesting.
Father, son, you know, doing a little bit of civic participation.
How do you think it's going to end?
Because you know, politicians they're stubborn.
I don't know now, to be fair.
See how the meeting goes later on in Dublin.
So, if we don't get our own way, we're just going to stick at it and protest and try to get it down as much as we can.
All right, well, it's nice talking with you.
Thanks very much.
Nice talking to you, too.
Cheers.
Damien, my name's Ezra Levan.
I'm with Rebel News in Canada.
It's my colleague, Efron.
How are you?
Great.
Well, I was just talking to your son.
He says, when the cops came by, they said, keep at it.
Yeah, keep at it.
They're very helpful.
Yeah.
If we needed Anton said they'd bring it to us, yeah.
No, can't complain.
Yeah.
Really?
Give us a thumbs up.
Yeah.
Well, how do you explain that?
Because I was seeing a tweet by Simon Harris, who was just full of rage.
And I saw the deputy commissioner of the Gardee, who's a Canadian, by the way, who said they're moving to enforcement.
Who's making the decisions?
And on March, Squad Car came down here earlier and she said, Fair play to you, you're doing well.
Wow, wow.
So, how many trucks are active like this across the country?
There's another protest coming down behind us here as we speak, tractors, but every road in the country is blocked.
Everyone is.
Lots of solidarity in the honking.
Even from people who are inconvenienced, they seem to be supportive.
Yeah, yeah.
What do you think that means?
We all need better fuel prices.
It'll break small businesses, big businesses.
Something has to be done.
Now, you guys are truckers.
I was talking to some farmers earlier.
I mean, you just can't do any farming with prices this high.
No, and for every two kilometers we do, we burn one liter of diesel.
So something has to change.
Very interesting.
Well, listen, thank you for talking with us.
And it's very interesting father son activism.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ezra Levant here.
I'm standing on the middle of a highway, the N7.
This is one, two, three, four lanes each way.
On this side, absolutely stop dead.
On that side, they're letting.
One lane go.
We just talked to a father son trucking team who said when the police came by, they said, Fair play, keep at her.
Here we see some truckers, sorry, pardon me, some farmers and some truckers behind them.
Let's see if they say a word to us.
Hey, fellas.
Good.
Ezra Levant from Rebel News, my colleague Efron, can we say a word with you?
Can we have a word?
It's incredible.
Now, this side of the N7 completely blocked.
Our police down there, I think I see some lights.
So, are you guys farmers or truckers?
Contractors and farmers.
Yeah.
And tell me what brings you out today.
What would make you do such a dramatic thing?
Sure, we can't afford to keep going.
Diesel has doubled in price.
Something has to be done.
Now, those guys were telling me that when the police came by, they said, fair play, keep at it.
That's interesting to me.
Have they talked to you?
They haven't talked to me yet, no, personally, no, but they are in contact with us.
The police talk to you?
Can I?
I'm Azra Levan from Rebel News down in Canada.
Do you mind if I come up here and say hi?
So you say the police came by.
What did they say to you?
They're fully supportive of us.
So we can't afford to move.
And isn't that interesting?
Because this is a pretty dramatic thing that's shut down the N7.
Shut down the whole country.
Never mind the N7.
Shut down the whole country.
Better off.
Until we get what we want, we're not moving.
We're here for the long haul.
I heard some honking horns when cars go by.
So.
Supportive.
All the public is very supportive of us, very supportive because I guess, uh, I mean, they don't use as much petrol and diesel as you do, but they everyone still uses some, yeah.
So, we're not moving until we get what we want done yet.
Let me ask you this uh, why do you think the government keeps the taxes so high?
Like, what's motivating them?
Do you have it?
What's your theory?
Greediness, that's exactly what a number of people have.
I've heard that exact same answer, they have on the fuel, yeah.
Like, that's crazy.
And what does that do to you as a man who's trying to work?
Cripples us.
Absolutely.
Yeah, it puts us down.
It's going to put us all out of business.
We're only small contractors.
And it's going to put us all out of business.
Have you ever done anything like this in your life?
No, never.
Government Ignoring Public Will00:09:10
Have you ever done anything political?
No.
No.
Never.
Wow.
Well, it's like this I'll either be home by 9 o'clock news or I'll be on the 9 1 news.
Well, listen, pleasure talking with you.
I sure hope it works.
This is a very dramatic time for Ireland.
Yeah.
Very dramatic, and the whole country is going to shut down before the weekend's out if they don't give us what we want.
Do you think this idea might spread to other countries?
It is spreading to other countries, yeah.
The North are going to have a protest the 14th, so we'll see how it fares out.
We'll see, do we get what we want?
I got one last question for you.
We're a small journalistic outfit from Canada, but we find Ireland very interesting.
Can you tell me, in your judgment, how has the Irish media?
Covered the protests.
Have they done so fairly?
Have they been biased towards the government?
Are they being supportive?
What's your view?
They're being half supportive.
They were saying that we were blocking the harsh shoulders there and that, but we sent them in videos to say we weren't.
And this emergency service were getting by no problem.
There's no issue with the emergency services.
All right.
Well, listen, nice talking with you.
Good luck, and I hope it ends well.
Same.
Okay, cheers.
Thank you.
Absolutely incredible what's going on.
You know, in Canada, we have a saying, peace, order, and good government.
That's the Canadian way.
A little bit passive, easy peasy.
In Ireland, when they don't like gas taxes, they shut down the highways.
Absolutely incredible.
I keep hearing from these truckers and farmers that when the police come by, they say, Fair play, have at her, keep it up.
And I find that fascinating given the political comments by people like Simon Harris, the former prime minister who's now the foreign minister.
Just absolutely incredible.
As far as the eye can see, this road is stopped.
On that road, there is one lane that's allowed to pass.
These people are serious.
And you know, I saw on Twitter someone mentioning that in all of Ireland, there's only 8,000 jail cells.
I mean, that's a funny way to put it, but there's a truth to it.
I mean, They say that in a free society, policing depends on the consent of the people.
You may have heard of Sir Robert Peel, the creator of the modern British police force.
He talked about policing with the consent of the people.
And in a free society, the laws have to be supported by the people or it just won't work.
There just aren't enough police and prosecutors in jails.
So when you've got fuel taxes so outrageously high that truckers can't truck and farmers can't farm, You lose the consent of the people.
And it sounds like the police themselves do not believe in upholding such an outrageous law.
When a country reaches that state, change has to come.
What are you going to do?
Arrest every farmer and trucker in Ireland?
Simply impossible.
This is an incredible moment.
And you know, I've been coming back to Ireland for I guess it's about two years now.
We started coming over to cover the mass protests against mass immigration.
And there's something about the Irish.
I mean, there's the phrase, the fighting Irish, the rebel spirit.
I mean, we call ourselves Rebel News, but the Irish are not a passive people.
They founded their country with a rebellion against the British Empire.
That's not an easy thing to do.
So I suppose it's in their blood to protest against outrageous taxes.
And I have to tell you, it's a fascinating thing to watch.
If you want to keep up with this story, please go to our special website we've set up called thetruthaboutirland.com.
My colleague Efron and I hopped on a plane.
And flew overnight.
We've only had about an hour's sleep in the last day or so.
But this is fascinating stuff, a little bit reminiscent of the trucker convoy back in Canada in 2022.
But I tell you, this is an amazing thing to be standing on a major highway in Ireland, completely at a standstill, and with police saying, Keep it up, lads.
For Rebel News, I'm Ezra Levant.
If you can help us out, go to the truthaboutiron.com.
As you can imagine, We're not like RTE, the state broadcaster here that gets hundreds of millions of euros from the government.
We rely solely on the generosity of our viewers.
If you value our journalism, please go to the truthaboutireland.com and chip in a euro or two.
Thank you.
Well, we were in Dublin earlier today and we've been trying to make our way down to Cork, which is in the southern part of Ireland.
That's where the only refinery on the whole island is located.
By the way, it's Irving Oil, which is a Canadian company.
And since we're talking about fuel and diesel and petrol, That's obviously a key choke point.
And we're making our way down, and we come across this livestock route truck blocking our way.
Tell me about what you've been doing here, why you're here, and the reaction from drivers.
Well, we're here, it is widely documented why we're here to get a reduction in excise on fuel.
We're finding it very difficult to run our businesses, all of us here collectively.
I'm a ground worker, this man's a livestock haulier, we have a steel erector here, farmers here.
agri-contractors here.
We just find it very hard to run our business with the price of fuel at the minute.
We believe the government could do more.
Help us.
Now, when I think of protesters, I think of people with pink hair, nose rings, and a little bit radical.
You lot, you're too busy working to protest.
I'm guessing this may be the first protest you've ever done in your life.
You're absolutely right.
It would be, yeah.
And so, what would make you do that?
What would make you block a road with your friends and take a stand?
Because I'm guessing you normally don't have time for shenanigans.
No, we have to, we just simply have to, driven to it.
Government hasn't listened, yes.
We feel we've been marginalised and we just haven't been listened to, that's it.
Our representatives have let us down as well.
We've all been in some body, we've all joined some thing, a group of something, at some stage and nobody, they've never really come to anything.
So we feel like that's it, we just have to be out and seen.
Now this feels like it's happening in hundreds of places across Ireland.
It feels spontaneous.
Is there a leader of the movement, or is it just everyone's fed up and they've sort of come to the same conclusion in their own way?
We're all united on it, yeah.
We have a couple of representatives in Dublin, all right.
Christopher Duffy and James Gagan.
We saw James Gagan today, we had a chat with them.
They would be kind of our main representatives, we'd say.
They kind of rallied us a bit, I suppose.
Do you know what I mean?
Over Facebook videos and things like that.
Yeah, we just kind of all came on suddenly, really, isn't it?
Just kind of all emerged out of nowhere.
The same to do it, and that's it.
Now, what kind of reaction are you getting from regular drivers?
Yeah, mostly very good.
Mostly.
As you can see from all the food.
Oh, that's been dropped off, hasn't it?
It's been dropped off.
None of that is our own.
Well, that's a good sign.
That's only today.
It's been the last two hours.
Now, let me ask you this have the Gardi come by?
No.
They haven't come by at all.
No, they've been very supportive.
They've come round and chatted with us and all that, but they've been very supportive, all right.
No problems with the Gardi at all.
Nothing.
No, no problem.
No.
That's very interesting.
I saw some public statements by some politicians.
I was reading Simon Harris said something on Twitter and he sounded pretty tough.
I mean, I don't know how tough he really is, but he was using very vitriolic language.
How do you square that?
You've got some politicians who are, you know, and I even saw the deputy commissioner of the Gardie, a Canadian woman, which I found was strange, talking about enforcement, but you're saying the police are supportive, which I've heard everywhere.
I've heard that and I've seen it.
What's with the disconnect?
You've got the cops saying one thing and the politicians saying another.
It's all just rhetoric, isn't it?
And as we know in any war, the truth is the last thing, the truth is last summer, isn't it?
So that's a bit of both, really, propaganda and just.
Are we in your way here?
No, no, you are.
Okay.
No, I don't, that's none of that, anyway.
Maybe in the city, an awful lot of guardia from the country as well, do you know what I mean?
All farmer sons and.
All your sons and we're all, you know what I mean?
The sons and daughters, like it's everybody, they're all part of everybody is suffering, like, including Gardee.
Truth Lost in Rhetoric00:13:01
Like, I was thinking about that.
I mean, police, they need the consent of the people because there just aren't enough police to arrest thousands.
There's not enough jail cells, there's not enough prosecutors.
So, I it seems to me the government has lost the legitimacy of public support, and I think police maybe know that before the politicians do.
Like, I just don't think the public supports this fuel tax.
No, I don't, they definitely don't.
I can't think of anyone who would.
Have you ever met anyone who says, Yeah, I like the fuel taxes where they are?
No, of course not.
We don't see any benefit for where our money is going.
Do you know what I mean?
We pay our taxes, but we don't see any benefit to it.
The roads are still in a deplorable state a lot of the time.
Infrastructure is slow to get built.
Plan of permission is slow to get through for houses that people want to build.
Costs are going up and everything.
We don't see a value for our money.
So that's a lot of it too, you know what I mean?
How's this going to end?
It'll end when there's a deal done and everybody's satisfied.
I don't know, it's looking very dodgy at the minute whether it'll be a deal done.
Don't think there will.
Don't think there will.
How long are you prepared to be here?
I don't know, sir.
We're comfortable here now, to be honest.
We stay here for a week.
We got some camaraderie, that's for sure.
Yeah, yeah, we're very.
A little bit of banter.
Yes, yeah, we're pretty happy here, yeah.
And we rotate it a bit, like people had to come and go, and, you know, we rotate around, so.
Yeah, we could come here or there.
It could go on for a while, yeah.
Could, definitely.
Last question for you.
I come from Canada where we had a trucker and farmer protest a few years ago.
But I think that the Irish are a little bit more rebellious than the Canadians, if I do say so.
Do you think that this kind of a protest that really shakes the political class has a chance of spreading to other countries?
It's always spread to France, hasn't it?
With the yellow vest protest and everything, it was in France all along.
Whether it will spread to any other countries, I don't know.
It's hard to know at the minute.
It depends on how results we get, I suppose.
If we do get any results.
Do you know?
I couldn't answer that now, to be honest.
Fair deal.
Well, thanks for talking with us and we wish you good luck.
Thanks.
Cheers.
Thanks a million.
You can check it out on Rebel News.
We'll have it up tonight.
Thanks, lads.
Are you going to Cork?
Well, we're down in County Cork, which is way down in the south.
In fact, I was nearby here when I was doing my story on Baltimore, the village that was completely kidnapped.
By Barbary pirates a few hundred years ago.
The reason we're here is you can see through the fog and the rain Ireland's only oil refinery.
It's actually owned by Irving Oil, a Canadian company.
It's obviously a strategically important piece of infrastructure, and with the protests across Ireland shutting down roads and ports and intersections, you can imagine that this is a bottleneck, a choke point that would have real economic and political pressure on Ireland.
If you recall in Cuba, where our team of Efron and Alexa went a couple of months ago, the lack of gasoline, the lack of diesel, This has brought the entire country to its knees.
Well, imagine the political power of this grassroots general strike, which is really what this protest is, shutting down that refinery.
Now, we came in, it was about a four hour drive, a little more than that, and it was more than that, ironically, because so many of the intersections and roads were blocked by this protest general strike against the gas.
I think that's what I'm going to call it a general strike.
Normally, you hear general strike, it's maybe politics of the left or some political movement.
Here, the general strike is against gouging fuel taxes.
Anyways, it took us a while to get here.
As you can see, it's just spitting rain.
It's 10 degrees Celsius, but it feels like about minus five.
I'm a little chilly.
The police or the guarda, the guardee as they're called, have told us we can go no further with a vehicle.
So, right there, you can see the difference.
As we saw the blockades on the highways and the intersections, I asked every single person, have the police talked with you?
And they say, yeah.
And the police give them the thumbs up.
Here, it's obviously very different with this refinery.
Police are restricting vehicles.
They said we can walk closer and we will, but obviously, they're treating this refinery as a very serious.
Operation that they do not want the protesters to tamper with.
And now let's walk and get a little bit closer.
Well, I tell you that North Atlantic, it is cold.
They say it's 10 degrees, but it feels, I don't know how you can get frostbite when it's 10 degrees, but I feel like I'm on the path.
You can see back there, that's where the police told us to leave our vehicle, and we sort of made our way through the town.
And you can see these big trucks with their dump trucks extended.
This is part of the protest.
And like I say, This oil refinery is a key piece of strategic infrastructure.
When we arrived, we met, I don't know, I think there were probably about 30 men there who were with the protests.
They were wearing their high vis uniforms.
In fact, at first I thought they might have been police themselves.
I had a few conversations and I was delighted to know that a number of them were familiar with Rebel News.
We've been to Ireland, I think this is our ninth visit over the last few years when we added it all up.
There's a lot of interesting things in Ireland.
And I think the most interesting thing is that they have that Irish spirit of rebellion that they're not going to take it.
The issue that motivates the people today is the fuel tax, but one gentleman brought up mass immigration as well.
There's other issues in this country.
I find it fascinating to watch the Irish take the initiative rather than be passive, as happens in some other countries.
The one mystery for me, though, is how you can have such a people with a grassroots energy and organic demand and authentic demand for reform, but no political party willing to seize it.
Where's the political entrepreneur?
In the United Kingdom, there's Nigel Farage.
In France, there's the Le Pen family.
In Ireland, you could say Georgia Maloney is of that breed.
There's Viktor Orban in Hungary.
Where is the Irish answer?
And you don't have to be radical.
You just have to say, we're cutting taxes, we're defunding the NGOs, we're bringing an end to the mass immigration madness.
And you can say so in a sweet and reasonable way.
I would think such a party would instantly be a contender.
Alas, it doesn't seem to be here, but we're here as reporters, not advisors.
Let's keep walking.
It's a little chilly out there.
We stepped in under this tent just to get out of the cold.
There's dozens of you guys here in the cold.
What would make you stand in the cold for days on end?
We have no choice.
We just have to stay with it now and just try to prove our point and hope it works, I suppose.
And look, there's a brilliant, there's so many here in fairness, and everyone is staying together, which in this weather is testing.
So it's nice to see that.
I see you got the Volvo logo on your jacket.
That tells me you're a trucker, are you?
Yeah, we have a couple of it's a family business at home, so we have crane trucks and we do some general haulage and stuff.
Myself and my father are here now for the last couple of days, and this is my friend Killian, and he joined us as well a minute ago.
Are you a trucker as well?
No, I'm not a trucker.
I'm a mechanic.
I'm serving my time with a crowd out the road there.
It's related though.
I mean, you're part of the industry.
Oh, definitely, sure.
Look, if there aren't vehicles on the road and not moving, it slows our work down as well.
We're not fixing, we're not servicing.
It has an effect on everyone, not just mechanics and we'll say farmers and construction workers.
It has an effect the whole way down the line, like, you know.
So.
What was it that sparked this protest?
Like, it seemed to just start up about three or four days ago in earnest.
Was there a particular straw that broke the camel's back?
Just cost, cost of everything.
It's just after rising too much.
And look, it's rising with a long time, but now it's just gone too far.
People can't do it, and not even that, but there's only time in it.
If it keeps going the way it's going, it'll.
It'll draw the whole country to a stop whether they want to believe it or not.
It will be the way it'll go.
You know, I've seen a lot of protests in my day.
I'm not exaggerating when I say I've been to 100.
And I have never seen one as widespread as this.
It actually feels like a general strike.
Why are so many people who don't know each other, who are not part of the same organization, why are so many people coming out at once?
Sure, I suppose it's just, again, it's hurting everyone, right from your truck drivers to farmers to families.
You know, everyone is feeling it, and they don't, again, Even just the price of everything, it's gone too far, and now this is really the final straw for a lot of people down to everyone.
Yeah, yeah.
I've been asking people who have been blockading highways, I've said, What have police said to you?
And every single one says, The police say, Keep it up, which is a little surprising for me.
Is it surprising for you?
Well, no, not really, like, because when you think about it, like, you know, guards have mothers, they have fathers, sisters, like.
Everybody is affected.
Everything is rolling on to the next fella.
So, they're as relatable to us as anybody else is.
So, no, I wouldn't be surprised, to be honest with you, because everyone is affected by it.
There's a rebellious spirit in Ireland.
I think it's part of the ethnicity, if I may.
But you've also got politicians who are very proud, and politicians don't like to be seen to lose faith.
So, on the one hand, you've got an irresistible force, but you've got an immovable object.
How can this end when you've got stubborn men in charge?
Yeah, look, it'll be tough.
And I don't honestly know.
I'm sure no one knows what way it's going to go or who's going to win or who isn't going to win.
And look, it's not about winning or losing.
For us, anyway, it's not.
It's just genuinely about getting the price of diesel down to make it make sense.
It's very, very simple.
I'm going to guess that this is the first time you guys have ever been to a protest.
Yeah, to be fair, yeah.
One that makes sense, anyway, yeah, for sure.
Well, I think that says something.
I mean, there are what I would call professional protesters on the left.
That's all they do, they do it for a living.
I'm seeing severely normal people make a decision.
What will happen if you don't make a change?
What's the outcome if you can't get this fixed?
I'd say no one knows.
It's not really.
I don't think failure isn't an option, not in this scenario, I don't think.
So I think it's just going to be stick with it, and as long as it takes, it takes, and that's pretty much it.
That's everyone's attitude.
Just stay until it works.
Are you surprised or impressed by the support that you're getting?
Oh, sure, it's unbelievable.
But sure, it's nationwide.
So, yeah, in fairness, it is unbelievable just the outcome of everybody.
Coming out, showing numbers, even like you see the weather outside yourself, it's unreal.
Most people would probably say they wouldn't bother, but like the fact that it is wet and windy outside and everybody has turned up, like, no, definitely, anybody who came today should be proud of themselves and like, you know, it is for a great cause, like, so yeah, no, definitely, definitely.
Well, listen, thanks for talking with me and thanks for giving me a little shelter.
It was a little not my kind of weather.
Canada gets cold, but it's a different kind of cold.
Yeah, right on.
Thanks, lads.
Good luck to you.
All the best.
Cheers.
Well, it's almost 7 p.m., and we are in Cork near the refinery.
This is about as close as we can get.
There's an enormous number of men here.
I would say there's about a hundred milling around, and as you can see, there's a large number of tractors, semi trailers, dump trucks, campers, and People from the community showing their solidarity with the men.
The police, while in heavy numbers as well, I have to say they're completely friendly.
Unanimous Fighting Spirit00:02:33
And I don't think it's an exaggeration or spin to say they actually support the men.
We probably encountered half a dozen blockades that, I mean, not to be critical, are illegal.
You can't just block the highway.
But they are.
And every case I asked the man, what do the police say?
And in every case, the answer was, keep it up.
I find that remarkable.
I find that to be the most compelling sign of all that the government no longer has the democratic legitimacy and the mandate of the people.
If the police, and the root of the word police is that the policy of the government is effective, If the police simply refuse because they know that the politicians are empty suits, don't have a mandate, don't have the moral right to impose these taxes on people, how can the political class continue?
They're so shameless in Ireland, I'm sure they will.
I'm reminded of the resilience of the Irish people.
Their stubbornness, I suppose, is a negative way, but it's that stubbornness that makes them refuse to accept improper taxes.
With oil prices being as high as they are because of global events, how on earth could a government on top of that add 60% in tax?
Put aside the part of the price that the government can't control.
Why do they refuse to cut the part that they can?
I think most countries in the world would passively shrug and say, oh, well, We were destined to pay that tax, but these rebellious people on this Emerald Isle have said no.
It feels like a general strike.
What's interesting is how unanimous it is.
And think about it when I think back to the trucker convoy in Canada in 2022, it was widely supported, but there was a cleavage.
Some people believed deeply in the vaccine mandate, some people were terrified of the COVID virus, they really were, and they thought the protesters were reckless.
But here, there's no other side.
There's no constituency that says, no, no, we actually do like paying more for fuel.
It's so unanimous, except for in the political class.
There, the opposite is true.
Allies Against Establishment00:01:58
The politicians and the media love their carbon taxes.
They do it for ideology, they do it for Greta Thunberg, and they do it, as every single respondent to me today said, out of greed.
Isn't that interesting?
I enjoy coming to Ireland so much, and it's not just because I love the weather.
I come here because I learn about the crises that we face in Canada and how those might look if we let them fester.
But I also come for some inspiration and hope.
The Irish people fighting back with that fighting spirit.
Even though they're led by donkeys, they fight back with a compelling passion.
We're going home tomorrow.
But I'm so glad we came today.
We're going to put all our videos on one website.
We've got so many interviews.
We probably have 10 different videos that we've done today.
And you can see them all at a website we put together called the truthaboutireland.com.
We have a big journey back to Dublin now, and we'll do some work tomorrow as well.
But then we have to leave.
But you'll be able to see all our videos at the truthaboutireland.com.
And if you think that the work we've done is valuable, please consider chipping in.
A few dollars or a few euros to help defray the costs of our journey here.
We bought our plane tickets last minute because we only heard about the protest yesterday, and I'm glad we came.
Thanks very much for your kind hospitality.
I have to say, and it's so surprising to me, Rebel News is very welcome in different parts of the world my hometown of Calgary, our head office in Toronto.
But pound for pound, I think the place we're most followed and frankly the most appreciated is in Ireland because they're looking for friends and allies to fight against the establishment.