Time to turn the heat up on our Rathgar Russians
WAR is no laughing matter. But it’s gas how the Russian Embassy here is in turmoil over local suppliers refusing to sell them heating oil.
It brings a whole new meaning to turning the heat up on somebody.
You’d have thought an Irish spring would’ve been water off the duck’s back to Russians.
They should be well used to being out in the cold – and in more ways than one!
There’s also a twisted irony in them finding it difficult to fill up their oil tank when you think about the EU’S overreliance on Russian gas pipes across the continent.
I can just imagine some Moscovian diplomats were trying to warm their backsides on radiators at their embassy on South Dublin’s leafy Orwell Rd the other day when they would’ve all tuned in to hear Ukraine President Zelensky’s historic address to Dail Eireann.
The man of the moment hit the nail on the head when he told our TDS: “We have to put an end to trading with Russia.
“We have to cut ties of the Russian banks to the global system and cut the sources of their income from oil that they use for their weapons and killing.”
It brings to mind proud Irishman Jonathan Swift’s famous quote to “burn everything English except for their coal”.
Lithuania did the right thing when they expelled their Russian ambassador in the wake of genocide in Bucha.
It’s sad our own government doesn’t have the cojones to boot out the ambassador here. They probably fear such “Ruskie Business” would be playing with fire.
But these mini oil barons operating in the Leinster area, who’ve refused to take Russian money tainted with blood, have shown us a great path to help smoke them out with purely peaceful means.
It’s reminiscent of the Dunnes Stores workers that went on strike back in the 1980s because they refused to handle oranges from apartheid South Africa.
We could all help keep the pressure on Putin in our own little way by also boycotting all trade with their embassy.
I reckon if we didn’t squeeze dry these particular Reds’ oranges it could end up being turned into a global story, with a domino effect of other countries copying us.
It would be poetic justice if it all started in Ireland, because the word “boycott” originated here.
It entered the English lexicon as a result of farmers in Co Mayo who gave the cold shoulder to an
English landlord’s agent named Captain Charles Boycott in the 1870s.
He was refused service at shops in his local village of Ballinrobe. Even the women wouldn’t “dream” of scrubbing his clothes or baking him a loaf.
A similar boycott of the cosmonauts here would give them a piece of our mind about the need for world peace.
Let them stew over it all when they can’t chew the fat with comrades next time the local pizza delivery guy won’t bring them their pepperoni with extra cheese.
That said, it would probably be a bridge too far for barmen to stop serving them pints of Guinness.
I think on an individual basis their money for liquid lunches, etc, should be still good outside the embassy – until it dries up.
It’ll be sooner rather than later if they don’t have Irish bank accounts and are surviving on cash hidden in their bunkers, seeing as Russian credit cards aren’t worth the plastic they’re printed on.
The silent treatment has always been much more effective than a war of words.
Nobody’s going to stay in the kitchen if they cannot stand the heat.