I’m not been funny or anything, but the country’s that have taking part in protests they have the weather in fairness!!

@ Joe …. you’d rather trade your future and kids futures for a dry shirt?

I’m not being smart with you but you sir embody everything that is wrong with this joke of a country

@ truthfully Irish, I take it your out protesting today for your joke of a country??……….,, Enough said!!

We live like Kings! Long May it Last!

Irish protestors outside Molly Malone’s Bar in Siem Reap, Cambodia………..

We don’t live here- we’re poor artists with the good fortune of getting a commission here : )

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151346944734575&set=a.265996664574.179406.718009574&type=1&theater&notif_t=photo_comment

@ Joe. You think because you say “enough said” you have somehow proven a point? Silly boy. It is not me who refuses to defend my birth rights given to me by my ancestors because of a little bad weather. You muppet.

@ truthful Irish, WOW with that tongue You’ll do our country proud!! So glad we have people like u standing up for us, good luck on your protest today. it’s a mild owl day so u should be fine in just a light coat! On behave of myself and the Irish people I’d like to thank you! If only there was more people like u, this country would be a much better place.

Your welcome Joe. Thanks for the plaudits but I feel it’s not necessary. I’ll say this though. If the protestors do make the government end the austerity and jobs come back and Ireland drags itself out of the crap it’s deep in now. Pat yourself on the back for allowing everybody defend your rights and civil liberties. Cause Ireland doesn’t already have enough spongers like you already.

Brilliant, LOL iv never sponged anything in my life, but then u wouldn’t know that as U don’t know me, and sure ud know that u dont know me as unlike u I’m not hiding my identity, How’d the protest go today?? (u know the one u didnt attend). once again, enough said!! Have a lovely day ;)

Joe Mulready
Pathetic comment. Man up for gods sake .

@eileen, that’s your opinion, as its mine, are u protesting from your armchair too? Well done you! Your doin great, we’ll be out of this mess in no time, good luck ;)

No Joe ,
I go to protests . I have been drenched and brought sandwiches and hot flasks. I do my bit and more . But Joe , can I take from your comments that you don’t care about the state we are in ? Or that you are happy about the governments actions or inactions. You are happy with the cuts in Education ? You are happy with the Health cuts? You are happy with the salaries bankers are getting retired or otherwise after the destruction they have brought down on us all? You are happy that Bertie Aherne and Pee Flynn deserve their pensions 2,500 per week ?
Are you not concerned about the forthcoming budget or are you alright Jack?

The Irish are thick, they let people walk all over them, again and again…they deserve poverty

As for the clown who thinks people should march because of the weather….he sums up the whole country, the perfect stupid Irish stereotype!

i must have been asleep during the austerity marches in ireland…what marches…the marches in europe have been led by the unions…thats why noonan and kenny crow that europe would love a croke park agreement as it silenced the unions here…beggs and o connor have cast the private sector members adrift

So Martin Smith
You don’t think that any of that the home help workers protesting their cut in hours,,the anti household charge protests, the protests against hospital closures ,bed closures , the students protesting their grant cut backs etc etc etc have nothing to do with austerity? Wake up .

Unions are a waste of time and money. They no longer represent, but control the ordinary man/woman.
They have no interest in getting you a fair deal, as long as they have a direct debit from your wage or salary.
The Unions are deeply involved with employers and government with the main intention of keeping the dust down and pacifying those from whom they reap their salaries. Everything gets done in the end and Unions just make a little noise for your benefit and then scurry off into the shade to sip with their partners in crime.

If one were to visit the grave of James Connolly, one would see a fog of steam covering it as he spins at the speed of light. For those who do not know…J C ( the real J C ) was one of the founding members of trade unions in Ireland and had more integrity in his left big toe than all of these yes men in today’s Unions.

There were those hippies living outside the central bank.

Not hippies, happies!! The only openly friendly strangers I met in Dublin last Christmas!!

there have been dozens, going back last last four years, usually on a Tuesday night ending at the Dail

If more of us had joined those so called hippies at the central bank, then the Gardai would have to call for the assistance of the army. It would have been all over the world news as the government sanctioned the use of force from the forces of the state.
You should also think about this…we as a neutral country only have an army for one reason and that is to quell any disquiet from within the general public.
It hasn’t happened yet but that is because we are a very obedient bunch of losers.
Be sure that when we finally cop on and protest en-mass, they will be deployed and then we become a Nation and a true Republic at that.

Well . I would have bothered to vote if it was for abolishing the Senate. Naw sez our government. Lets pick something emotional and probably irrelevant to most peoples daily lives like the childrens referendum.

Well with Damocles attitude, That seems clear. People who make a stand these days are labelled ‘hippies’ – Rediculous!

We’re a broken nation in more ways than one.
I hate to say it, but we’re a pitiful lot really.

That’s right Russell, people aren’t protesting because they’re concerned that I might call them hippies.

Id love to take part Kerry but if I saw a unions name on it I wouldn’t be near it..

The beards in the trade unions are very much part of the problem – they milked it as well,sitting on as many state boards as they could …O and yes the Croke park agreement ,how could we forget it!!!!

Bilbo I’m not into unions either but it is a valid question and I’d be interested in their answers. After all are they not meant to be representing the workers of Ireland?

Gerry indeed they are part of the problem. Part of the reason that there’s not a word out of them today on the European day of action and solidarity I suspect….

see thats the problem in ireland.

most of the protests held euro wide are organised by public service unions and attended by public sector workers. but when the unions here organise a protest everyone whinges that the unions are complaining, but yet complain that there aren’t enough protesting. there is a public v private sector divide in ireland which suits the people in power.

A peaceful protest march would be all well and good and I’d be all for it, but if it’s a straight choice between apathy or mass violence, a la Greece, I’ll take the apathy any day of the week.

I agree with you Kerry, the fact that this is why unions exist. Unions have done so much damage in inflating the public service that their complicit in the downfall I believe. They sat at the table with Bertie and shouted mo money mo mo money . and I’m not turning this into a public/private sector thing. It’s just the private sector corrects itself (unless ur a bank). the top tier of the unions have their contract so sown up the nest to too comfy with all the feathers to draw attention to themselves.
Unless of course their pensions are threatened then they’ll cripple air transport to everyone’s detriment.

Rob there is no mass violence in Greece. Yes there are the far right / far left anarchists but the majority of people are protesting peacefully.

And don’t forget the union leaders all get their directorships on state bodies to top up their 6 figure pensions when they retire #corrupt like the rest of the 1%. The general population in Ireland is also as weak and treacherous as they were when spitting on the 1916 leaders and then lauding them when they got an illusion of victory.

They’re still at it ffx, and the minute the shutters come down on the Croke Park Agreement the tantrums will start.
I’m all in favour of workers rights and fair pay for a days work, but some of the stories you hear about the carry on of public sector unions in the workplace just boil my blood.

Some person or organisation has to lead any organised protest. They will not just happen. In other countries its the Unions, whether we like it or not our ‘Unions’ have been bought and wont rock the boat. The leaders of the workers like to dine in Leinster house.
The oppopsition parties are happy as larry with their lot and even Sin Fein have been brought into the fold.

We are the pariahs of Europe now and even the workers will despise us. We are the modern day version of Quisling and Vichy all rolled into one.

Actually Democles, you are right… People do not protest here because there is a really evident stigma. People who have opinions and stand up for injustice or for what they believe in in this country are labelled self-righteous (or dirty hippies, who by the way are drastically misunderstood) and they are ridiculed by peers for being too opinionated, or acting above their station. ‘what gives him/her the right to speak about such things as though he/she knows everything’, ‘who do they think they are’. Fundamental inferiority complex in the Irish psyche. Get up, get in the know, care even just a little bit, and then act on it. There needs to be an effort on creating a culture of action here, and not condemning those who already have it.

Andy; we’re not customers of the government – we’re their employers (at least on paper anyway). We voted them into these positions of power. THAT, unfortunately, is something they forget very quickly in the post-election haze.
To put it another way, if you were given a job and didn’t perform as per the expections of those who placed you in that position – they’d eventually sack you, yeah?

You’re absolutely right. I hope Eoghan Murphy’s Tax Transparency Bill is passed by the Oireachtas.

http://www.eoghanmurphy.ie/2012/11/08/tax-transparency-bill-see-how-much-you-pay/

It gives every PAYE taxpayer a breakdown of what their taxes go towards.

The Spanish, Greeks, Italians are doing something about it

There will only be action in this country when the “I’m alright Jacks” fall below critical mass. Successive governments have always ensured, and continue to ensure, that that will never happen.

Marian. I have been making that very point for two years. The unions and the government are as one, because of Croke park. The people outside the CPA are the people that need the most help, but because Union leaders only care about protecting their handy life’s, the rest of us can go to hell. The private sector workers of this country need to be represented by a union that has no ties with Croke park, and if that means going it alone, and starting up a brand new union, then so be it.

Im confused, the CPA is stopping you setting up a union or organisation for the last 2 years?

I’m confused – the CPA is an agreement between public sector unions and the government. Why are so many comments targeting these unions and not the unions who are not bound by the CPA?

Why are the private sector unions not out protesting or organising protests? Why is it that public sector ones are being talked about as if they’re the only ones that exist?

SIPTU dont just represent the public sector, they have members in the private sector too, but they only care about their members in the public sector.

“Peace & Spuds”. Epic lol

And why dont’ you go back to the 1940’s Enda Curtin! ;)

Well said T.I., WELL BLOODY SAID!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m not protesting because I’ve nothing to protest about.

What? You live in a country with mass unemployment and poverty where all services are cut to pay off the banksers – where billion and billions are handed to bankers each month while we;re asked to pay tax on contaminated water with boil notices in some parts and no water service at all in others if there’s a bloody R in the month and then you tell me that you have nothing to protest about???!!!! What ivory tower are you living in Damocles?
I’m with Truthful Irish – this country and it’s pathetic people make me SICK!

If you’re so bothered why are you not outside the Dail right now protesting?

Thats nice Domcles … so because your life is so perfectly well insulated from all of societies problem you will do what the politicians do. And simply pour scorn on anybody who doesn’t match your expectations.

Talk about being selfish. You should probably sign up for FG.

well said. I’m staying positive about this I think people will wake up they can’t continue denying whats going on. http://www.facebook.com/events/122229381266866

You know what little boy. I will be at the Dail today. Will you? Will anybody else from this joke of a poll be?

42% of you that voted on this said you want to see more action….. today there is a chance for you to participate at 2 pm. I bet you , you won’t back up your vote and attend.

As I said already, joke of a nation.

Well if you’re so angry about things “Truthful Irish”, why are you sitting around bickering with me, why don’t you take your ire to the Dail?

Read before you comment ….. pure proof right there of the Irish mentality. All gusto and bravado but as usual…. no substance.

I am going to be at the Dail today from 2 pm. Will you or is your life really so well sorted? Are all your frinds lives so wonderful? Do you believe the current shower in office represent you and your ilk? Do you think that you have nothing to complain about when so many of your civil liberties are being stripped from you almost weekly?

Listen mate, I have watched and read your comments on this site for months and months. You are a spoon at the very best of times and I won’t be wasting anymore of my time on a pleb like you.

Actually I think you’ll find we posted near simultaneously.

“I am going to be at the Dail today from 2 pm. Will you?”

No. I’ll be at work.

“Irish mentality”, ” I have watched and read your comments on this site for months and months.”

Not very thoroughly.

“mate”, we aren’t mates.

Just because I don’t want you to have the last word . Good come back .. mate !

Well said, Truthful… on all points.
I’ll repeat what I said earlier: “There will only be action in this country when the “I’m alright Jacks” fall below critical mass”.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/1010/1224325095342.html

I agree, we lie down for everything they throw at us, when all the irish get up off their asses to shout we,ve had enough, then I go, why have you lot of moaners let a yes vote win against your kids in favour of the goverment, yer full of wind and piss, now piss off back to your bottle of courage.

@ truthfulIrish

Don’t really want to get involved in this particular bunfight but what exactly do you believe that we can achieve throught protest marches. It’s never achieved anything in the past and maybe that’s why we as a nation don’t do peacful protest outside the dail.

@ Josh. Ok thats a fair point. I hate answering questions with questions …. but. What change has happened by staying at home moaning about it? What change has all these bar stool world savers brought us? Protest does work and has worked countless times in Ireland. Medical cards for the over 70′s? The recent increase in Farmers allowances? The cuts to special needs? The referendum being biased and one sided? If people actually get off their arses and speak up, things change.

You realise you are actually agreeing with me. We both think that people with something to protest would be better off protesting it than sitting around going “Oh we should protest this” forever and not actually going and protesting it.

The difference is that you want people to go and protest because you believe in the stuff they and you think should be protested, whereas I want them to go and protest because I’m finding the online whinging about this that and the other which isn’t followed up by action increasingly tedious.

@ Truthful Irish,
Can’t really agree with you there though. Farmers got nothing from their protest . The pensioners, I believe is different because of their political profile. They all vote , they all read the papers, and you can’t exactly send the riot squad in to break them up. As for the special needs An emotional topic that was payback from the PS to remind the government whom exactly rules the country. These are really important issues to the small interest groups involved and in terms of overall Government spending policy a pittance. We get distracted by them. The real issues we totally ignore because we are led around by the nose by, in general, Lazy financial journalists and of course RTE who really love to concentrate on the heart string issues of the day

Wait and see what results this euro wide austerity protest gets them … No where We get in with it because it needs to be done

Jay I guess you missed the €100 billion the Greeks got on their debts or the fact that their program has been extended for an additional 2 years?. Did you also miss the news that Spain is getting €100 billion for their banks with no strings attached and were allowed to change the time scale for meeting their targets on debt reduction?

Spain is “to big to fail” the eu will do all in its power to keep it a float irrelivent to protests. And greece got a write off because its in the best interest of the eu at the moment to keep the eu stable

Kerry – Greece did not get an extra 2 years to pay their debt. The IMF want to give them an extra 2 years but the ECB wont budge.
The Spanish bank bailout will have plenty of strings attached. “EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the IMF would be involved, while Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said there would be a supervision programme.” – http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/11/question-answer-spain-banking-bailout

The other thing is that Ireland looks like the country that will get out of this period of austerity soonest. Ireland’s bond rate is 4.5% lower than Spain (5.8%), Italy(4.9%), Greece (17.6%) and Portugal (8.8%). All can be found through link on this page – http://namawinelake.wordpress.com/about/pigs-10-year-bond-yields-bloomberg/

I’m not happy with Austerity, but I don’t see where we can get money to go any other way without huge consequences.

I suggest you read this! In fact, everyone in the country should read this:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/1010/1224325095342.html

@Pat red it shocking but the defenders of FG/Lab will not accept these figures.

@Pat. Thats incredible, I think Labour should be wiped out in the next election as they’ve become meaningless. Connolly and Larkin must have done so much grave spinning that its possible we already have an underground system.

Pre-CPA 120,000 ictu members marched through Dublin. That was feb 2009.

And there is another thing the minister for COULD POTENTIALLY (I am making no accusations) be the most corrupt politician this country has had and nobody bats an eyelid!!

Damocles, are you out & about yourself? waving ‘anti EU’ banners?

I’m not Anti EU. There are elements of it I disagree with and I believe certain countries should be reconsidering their roles within the EU but I’m not anti it.

What would the protest be about? VAT increase 2012, USC charge 2011, Loss of rent relief amongst everything else were all painful ehough. It still hurts Gagsy. No more pain Gagsy. http://www.facebook.com/events/122229381266866/

I’ve been on the 2 student union protests. On the first one there was a BIT of trouble and loads of coverage. On the 2nd one there was NO trouble and NO coverage. Us students aren’t bothering to go to Dublin to walk around and have a picnic anymore. It’s a waste of money. So the S.U. have developed a different tactic. Trouble is, we don’t know what it is! Neither do they ! What a shower ! Our future leaders… we’re doomed !

no true, many ‘beaten down’ and ‘weak’ vulnerable disabled people did all night protest outside dail on sept 4th last

Can I tweet him? And can I wait until we know what’s in it?

And the household charge as well.

I’m happy to serve as a rallying point for your self righteous indignation.

Fair play Damocles! Would you mind throwing out a few incendiary Thatcherite remarks to really stir things up here and ensure a huge attendance on the 24th?

I don’t think that’s necessary. It’s ironic though that the DCTU pre-Budget protest is supported by SIPTU one of the key proponents of the Croke Park Agreement which is allowing high pay for back office civil servants at the expense of front line workers and ordinary tax paying citizens.

They do very little because your attitude is the attitude bred into people by the government press office (Insert any Irish newspaper here). Protest don’t work because you do it once in your lifetime. You have to protest every week, they have to get bigger by the week.. If that doesn’t work it escalates to every day and it will take less than two weeks of that to change once the pressure is maintained

Caroline, I think there is a place for both types of protest. The Campaign Against the Household Tax has been a very successful civil disobedience campaign which has shown that the systems of the state cannot cope in the face of mass non compliance. Public protests and marches have also proven to be effective, most recently with the government forced into a humiliating reversal on the over 70′s medical card due to a mass protest outside the Dail.

They work in other countries. Maybe you’re not trying hard enough?

How do you know?

I’m none of those and I voted No.

What would be the demands of the protest?

Justice?

”I might add that in Greece the people continuously voted for corrupt politicians who carried on with their corruption and spending money the did’t have”
U are just plain wrong
Taken from John pilgers site May 2010

”At 11 per cent, Greece’s deficit is no higher than America’s. However, when the Papandreou [ Socialist ]government tried to borrow on the international capital market, it was effectively blocked by the American corporate ratings agencies, which “downgraded” Greece to “junk”. These same agencies gave triple-A ratings to billions of dollars in so-called sub-prime mortgage securities and so precipitated the economic collapse in 2008.”

”The right-wing government of Kostas Karamanlis, which preceded the present Pasok (Labour) government of George Papandreou, was described by sociologist Jean Ziegler as “a machine for systematic pillaging the country’s resources”.

The machine had infamous friends. The US Federal reserve Board is investigating the role of Goldman Sachs and other American hedge fund operators which gambled on the bankruptcy of Greece as public assets were sold off and its tax-evading rich deposited 360 billion euros in Swiss banks. The largest Greek ship-owners transferred their companies abroad. This haemorrhage of capital continues with the approval of the European central banks and governments”

Jim, off the top of my head Greece’s debt is about 190% of GDP which is far higher than the US’ at 72% last month. So t hat demolishes your first point. Greece can’t borrow because it couldn’t pay back what it now owes never mind more.

The “right wing” government didn’t take power on a coup d’état, they were elected by the people.

If indeed some bankers tried to pull a fast one and manipulate the market then Greece can sue them.
Greece is a basket case and has many of the insane spending programs as France and many European countries. Very early retirements, vast numbers of free accommodation for public officials, extravagant social welfare programs, a bloated civil service etc.

Two young people I know went out in the last couple of weeks looking for unskilled work and got it. How come the 15% can’t seem to find work? It’s quite clear that many people do not want to work or are better off on the dole which allows them to do black market work and also a bit of dodgy income earning; selling smuggled cigarettes, selling stolen goods, stealing, a bit of drug dealing, driving around in their white vans nicking etc

Can people stop with these bleeding Father Ted quotes.

down with that sort of thing…

Me too.

I guarantee you one thing: the peasants and halfwits who are still in this country will still be complaining about whingers running the place down.

Irish people don’t want to hear the truth, they would rather moan about it into there overpriced pint.

Kenny is getting well paid by the taxpayers, for being someone else’s puppet.

Oh ffs! We inherited the mess blah blah blah, in fairness the gov blah blah blah. Stop playing the blame game over a year has passed, time to take responsibility now Enda!

ah but they said the changes they would make ,, the bail out they were against,, they did not put their foots down, they got their ears wigged, cheeks pulled,, ah god bless enda,, wusssssssssss

I have sad news for you Steve. That’s not rainwater.

This is why we should cut the dole and charge fees for the ignorati to attend college.

Right looking back now I suppose I did sound a bit thick. (long day) I know the point of marching’s to show the government we’re angry, to tell them in as direct a manner as possible what we think of their current policies and it’s not a lot. Just feeling a bit frustrated at the complete lack of progress coming from it and this is from someone who was up in Dublin marching myself last winter. I’m fed up. Wish them the very best those marching, maybe this time something’ll come of it.