To Commemorate The Dublin Lockout

In Dublin City, in 1913, the boss was rich and the workers slaves. In 2013, the workers want to go to work so could those in charge of Dublin City commemorations please not close down O'Connell Street on one of the busiest shopping days of the year?

To bring in the tourists, Ireland would very much like to hold all sorts of special events surrounding the upcoming centenary of the Easter Rising, a rebellion that can claim some origins in the labor dispute of 1913 that galvanized support for a change in government.

Naturally, there is talk of staging re-enactments, but most people would not recognize the artfully staged reproduction of the tram drivers walking off the job as anything other than a modern strike, which is so common in Europe that tourists are often advised to be prepared with an alternate plan in the event of some transport group downing tools.

Parades bring in the out-of-towners who spend money, but a parade requires a street be closed and if the street is closed people are not driving on that street and parking and calling in the shops. Business is down these days, with the economy still faltering, so the last thing the modern-day bosses want is to make things worse. If they don't sell things, the VAT isn't created or collected, so it's not in the government's best interest either.

Grand, bringing in more warm bodies to the shopping district, but what use are those warm bodies if they aren't parting with some cold cash? When Michael D. Higgins waxes prolific, he'll hold the tourists spellbound with that adorable brogue of his and where does that leave the shop clerks? Leaning on their counters, not making sales, that's where.

You'll have parents racing to purchase back-to-school necessities for children on the day of the commemoration, and those parents vote. They won't look favorably on their elected officials if they're inconvenienced when they least have the patience for that inconvenience.

Why not Sunday? Why must the event be commemorated on Saturday? After one hundred years, does it really matter if the event is held a day later?

The trade unions are keen to stage the commemoration because it's all about them. Attempts to deny them their day of glory could lead to industrial action.

But of course, no one will notice because they'll presume it's part of the show.