It is Thursday afternoon, and Merrion Street is quiet. Eerily quiet. The entire street has been locked down, cordoned off by imposing fabricated metal barricades and policed by a heavy security presence. A middle-aged woman, seeking to catch a Dart, asks to pass through. She is refused, politely. The zero-access rules are being applied across the board. Accreditation is mandatory. It is a similar scene on other streets around Leinster House.  The Dáil has returned. Various protests have been planned. According to the Garda, the “vast majority” of these protests are peaceful but there has “also been an increase in…

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