The verdict that found Paul Murphy TD and five others not guilty of falsely imprisoning Labour Party TD and former tánaiste Joan Burton and her assistant Karen O'Connell was enthusiastically welcomed by residents of Jobstown.
Most members of the predominantly working class community in Tallaght, west Dublin were passionate in their support of Paul Murphy TD, and the other five men who were put on trial for falsely imprisoning Ms Burton and Ms O’Connell during a water charges protest.
Bernie Curtis said she thought the false imprisonment charges were “a bit of a witch hunt after Paul Murphy, because he’s very popular up here and I don’t think they like that.
“Thankfully he won out,” she added.
Mr Murphy was elected second in the poll in the Dublin South-West constituency in the 2016 general election.
“I think it was to do with the area. They don’t like this area. It’s them against us,” Ms Curtis said.
Most residents in the area expressed a distrust for what they referred to as “them”: the Garda, judiciary, the media, and political establishment. The representatives of the state and the political system were not seen as being reflective of the people of Jobstown.
The protest in 2014 broke out after a group of water charges protesters began a demonstration as Ms Burton was leaving an event on the Fortunestown Road. The road runs parallel to a large number of housing estates in the centre of Jobstown.
Ms Burton and Ms O’Connell were kept in a car surrounded by gardaí for three hours, while the group demonstrated around them.
Ms Curtis, who said she had attended the Jobstown protest, recalled that almost immediately there was “a tension” between the protestors and the gardaí protecting the car. “They just assumed straight away there was going to be trouble. They didn’t listen to why the people were there,” she said.
‘Abandonment’
Locals who were interviewed expressed a firm view that the Labour Party let the working class community down while in government during the recession, and this perceived abandonment fuelled the anger that flared up during the protest.
“That’s why she [MS BURTON]wasn’t liked up here. Because we were affected so badly. Everyone has the right to protest. I understood their anger. She wasn’t good to people in this area,” Ms Curtis said.
Another Jobstown resident who witnessed the protest was Laura Finn. She said there was a divide in how people viewed the protest afterwards, depending on their background. Politicians and people from well off backgrounds did not understand the frustration among the community, she explained.
“They don’t know what is going on around here, what we have to put up with. They don’t live in this environment,” she said.
Breda Kinsella, another Jobstown resident, said she voted for Mr Murphy in the last general election and supported the JobstownNotGuilty campaign.
“I kind of became a bit angry with Labour. I do believe the protest started off peaceful, and that was the aim. I think the whole case was a waste of taxpayer’s money,” she said.
Few locals interviewed expressed sympathy for Ms Burton or Ms O’Connell over their ordeal.
However, one female councillor from the west Dublin area voiced concern about a combative view of politics which had led to her personally receiving “vitriolic” abuse on social media.
The councillor, who asked to remain unnamed, said she has been called a “whore” and other personal insults from people online for being perceived to be too close to the centre or “establishment” politics.
“It’s not about politics, or engaging in debate. They have no interest in that, it’s about hate,” she said.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Murphy said an increase in people becoming politically active for the first time had led to an "unfortunate" increase in online abuse.
“You have people coming into politics for the first time with a lot of anger, and who don’t have the best means to express that legitimate anger in the most political way. They can sometimes express that unfortunately in abusive terms,” he remarked.
