The new breed of activists defies easy definition, sprouting up as a response to the chaos of urban living. Jonathan Griffith, managing director of the Natural Medicine Company, imports herbal remedies and lobbies for State recognition of their use. Last year's ban on the sale of St John's Wort galvanised consumers into action, with 55,000 signatures collected - if they were votes, they would be the equivalent of three Dβil seats.
"The doors suddenly opened," says Griffith, who is now in a dialogue with the Government.
Irish farmers are widely regarded as "cute hoors" bent on squeezing the maximum subsidies from the EU, a convenient myth which has isolated the entire sector from other protest groups.
John Hanrahan and his family, based in Co Tipperary, challenged one of the world's biggest corporations, Merck, Sharpe and Dohme (MSD), in the 1980s. The Hanrahan family and their livestock fell ill after poisonous chemicals blew in from the MSD plant located one mile from their holding, which had been farmed for seven generations.
"Nobody in authority, nobody who could do anything to stop it, would believe us," says Hanrahan. The US chemical giant was a privileged guest of the nation located in an unemployment blackspot, where the right to pollute for profit took precedence over the citizen's right to clean air.
The High Court dismissed the Hanrahan case in 1985 but the Supreme Court reversed the decision in 1988, forcing the US multinational to pay out an undisclosed sum in damages.
The Hanrahan case should have marked the end of such controversy as the Republic established environmental bodies to monitor standards around the country. Last month, however, the Cappagh Farmers' Support Group demanded an inquiry into toxic emissions in a small area that has seen 39 cancer cases near Askeaton, Co Limerick.
The victims blame industrial pollution from a nearby aluminium factory for the nausea, sore limbs and persistent coughs affecting humans and the "yards of skin" falling from cows. A report in a US scientific journal linked the animal deaths to aluminium poisoning. This month, however, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the results of a six-year investigation into the farmers' complaints; it had failed to discover why hundreds of cattle and horses died on a handful of Limerick farms in the early 1990s.
Irish protesters have yet to build a mass movement that would unite the loose strands of disaffection, but use of the Internet helps groups to stay in touch. Action from Ireland (Afri), a small organisation with 4,000 members, is perhaps the most daring in its efforts to bring local and global protest themes together.
The organisation sent observers to East Timor and the Garvaghy Road. It also launched the Famine walk initiative to revisit our painful past and invited speakers from contemporary famine situations to link past and present.
In the beginning, Afri consisted of Don Mullan and Joe Murray. "We thought we could save the world on our own," laughs Murray.
He has weathered the wrath of such companies as Smurfit and Fyffes Ltd for taking them to task on labour and environmental issues in Latin America and has made the transition from bachelor activist to keen father, with co-responsibility a key parenting principle.
"When you have to come home and change nappies and get up in the middle of the night to attend to your kids, that changes your perspective," he says.For many activists, the elderly are invisible and children a nuisance. "Children humanise us," says Murray. "We are enriched by the reality of being part of a family, with all the unexpected demands it throws at us."
The resurgence in activism has helped to revive the trade union movement, which enjoys fresh negotiating power in a time of low unemployment. Meanwhile, Irish farmers have joined the ranks of road protesters as compulsory purchase orders pave the way for more road-building.
Politicians in the big parties are worried about the forthcoming general election and the rebelliousness of the once-reliable electorate. Independents, Sinn FΘin and the Green Party have cornered the market in electoral disaffection.
The impressive performance by independent Mark Prendergast, who came second (losing to Fine Gael) in the recent South Tipperary by-election, marked the consolidation of a new phenomenon - anti-politicians elected to defend the dispossessed. On the final campaign day, Fianna Fβil boasted of having "800 people on the ground" and announced 125 new jobs. They still lost.
In the 1940s, Cornamona, in Connemara, was a village of donkeys, horses, baskets and carts, says Joe Molloy. Since then, 100 houses have disappeared, their occupants gone. Now emigration abroad has been replaced by migration into urban areas, while trees have supplanted people as another profit-making initiative.
"You probably think I'm a radical hoor," says Molloy (66), describing his lifelong struggle for the rights of small farmers. "We contaminated our food chain and our water, BSE was created by greed, chemicals and intensive farming. We forgot that nature is the supreme authority of all living beings," he says.
Molloy will retire from farming in November, ending a family tradition dating back two centuries. "In 20 years' time, a few large farms will thrive alongside holiday homes, hotels, trees and rich European tourists," he says. "Next November, I will drive my last seven animals onto the lorry."
He pauses, tears coming to his eyes. "I feel sad," he says.
Molloy, an activist in the revived Land League of the 1970s, is "delighted" to have lived long enough to see "a new generation of activists eyeball the bureaucrats" on the streets of Europe.
The loss of our connection to the land must be challenged, he maintains, by harnessing inner peace with active protest. "My spirituality rests in nature. Out on the boat or in a lonely place, you get a sudden glimpse of beauty, inspiring, brief and fragile."
Residents Against Racism: http://sites.netscape.net/rarireland/racist_diary.html. Hotline: 087-06662060
Afri: www.afri.buz.org
Comhairle's directory of national voluntary organisations: www.cidb.ie/comhairlevcs.nsf