How Do You Like Them Apples?

at

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This afternoon.

The Right 2 Water national demonstration GPO, O’Connell Street, Dublin.

Eighty thousand, organisers say.

More to follow.

Earlier: The Wheels On The Bus

Tens of thousands protest against water charges in Dublin (RTÉ)

Via Emma Jane Dempsey

Update:

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Right2Water campaigners march from Heuston and Conolly Stations to the Spire in O’Connell Street for a monster meeting in opposition to the water charges.

(Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie)

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89 thoughts on “How Do You Like Them Apples?

        1. Shane

          Cos that’s how much they have to pay because they are figured out to be cops!
          Cops take drugs!!

  1. jonotti

    Democracy has spoken. A majority of people voted for parties supporting water charges in 2011. I would appeal to all of the jobless wonders to please stop clogging up the city for the rest of us.

    1. Fergus the magic postman

      You’re not a troll as I once thought. You’re a lame idiot with a disorder of some sort, & I feel sorry for you.

      1. Medium Sized C

        Given how the Labour party manifesto stated that they wouldn’t charge for water, that’s an especially dumb response to Jonotti’s trolling.

        1. scottser

          He keeps the corpse of his ma in the attic. All he hears is ‘you’re better than everyone else darling, you have 3 international caps. Now come and give mummy a special kiss’

  2. Barry Richards

    Glad to see Paul Murphy was at the demonstration. That’s Paul who paid his water charges as an MEP in Brussels. Talk about hypocrisy!!

    1. blueswannabe

      @Barry

      Not really, did the Belgian Government raise his VAT wit the promise it would pay for water services? Did the Belgian Gov take a huge chunk out of his motor tax ‘to pay for water services’, did they introduce a local property tax that was essentially a smash and grab, under the guise of providing services like, I don’t know, water?

      Even if you pay water charges abroad and believe in them in general, there are many reasons to oppose the farce that Irish Water has become.

      That’s not even mentioning the jobs for the boys, money for people who a tribunal found bribed the current party in power in the past’s company and general inefficiency, arrogance and idiocy of those in charge, there’s no way they can argue it’s a private entity because if it was they’d all be long fired for incompetence!

          1. Mé Féin

            They also pay for jobs for the boys, inflated salaries in the public sector, gold-plated pensions (a la Pat Neary) and waste.

  3. Francis Almond

    You need to have a long hard look at yourself if you continue to back a government whose only purpose is to maintain the status quo. We live in a terribly divided society and those tasked to govern us rather than make it a more equal and inclusive place have divided us again and again. The Local Property tax. The Universal Social Charge. The Water tax. This is corrosion not good government. They have have chosen the road of least opposition in Europe because they don’t have the intelligence to find an alternative. We were promised reform and a halt to unfair repayments to bondholders “not one more red cent”. Our elected representatives have failed us, they are the problem. They haven’t guided us through a crisis, there is no sure hand on the tiller. We are rudderless and all at sea. There will be an election by November. Replace them

    1. Dubloony

      No we’re not rudderless.
      While I’ve specific problems with the implementation of charges (who hasn’t?), the basic problem that got us into this mess is that state finances were overly reliant on property transactions to fund state services.

      Was stamp duty of €20-30,000 fair on someone buying or selling a house? It didn’t affect the majority, so no street protests. The property bubble resulted in banking crises, 25% of adult male population involved with building, When the money ran out, banks faced collapse, mass unemployment and huge reduction in taxes resulting in the country needing a bailout.

      The tax base has been broadened so that people who use the services, pay for them. If you use less, you pay less.Apart from USC, nothing has been introduced that isn’t already in place is most other well functioning countries. Employment is up across most sectors – tourism, agriculture, technology, and building industry now gearing up for more sustainable growth.

      Our tax system is one of the most progressive in OCED countries.
      http://www.ibec.ie/IBEC/Press/PressPublicationsdoclib3.nsf/vPages/Newsroom~new-ibec-report-debunking-irish-income-tax-myths-29-09-2014/$file/Debunking+Irish+income+tax+myths.pdf

      No, Ireland isn’t perfect, there are absolutely problems that need solving. We have the capacity to solve them. But the biggest problem is that people want all the services that other countries have while believing that they personally don’t have to pay for it.

      1. rob

        im so sick of that inane ‘other countries do it’ argument. 190 euros comes out of my monthly wages for USC.. and it isnt even disguised as something that’s used for services, its just extra tax. when they brought it in it wasnt even needed. water is a service that requires funding. thats why we already pay 1.2 billion a year for it. if updating was required, what theyve pumped into IW already wouldve covered that. they also introduced IW at the same time as noonan announcing that we are well ahead of our national loan repayments.. so there was no need to set up IW in an effort to generate more money. and the governments refusal to block IW from ever being private shows that they fully intend to sell it off. its a slap in the face for everyone whos back has been broke paying back for the mistakes of others. and if you dont see that with all the evidence on show, you’re probably involved in it on some level. in which case you’ve no problems earning a living off human suffering. making you, a word i cannot use on broadsheet.

    2. rob

      spot on. the only option i see fit for the job are the social democrats. you also make a good point about current gov (and past) not having the intelligence to govern wisely, a point not made enough. constantly getting the wool pulled over their eyes.. eg. oil, irish seas .. its laughable if it wasnt so sad. this is what you get when you let a load of ex-school teachers run the country .. no insult to school teachers, but they are not equipped with the skills to run a country.

    3. brytothey

      Exactly, with what? Look at Greece. They chose the ‘alternative’, they tried to fight the system and look where it got them.

      Sure, there needs to be big improvements in housing especially, but unemployment continues to drop, growth continues to improve. We’re on the right track, the only track.

        1. myownself

          oh fupp you man, yeah; every single woman and man there are well in with such orrganisations. well done, you have somehow rumbled everyone

  4. alex lyons

    organisers have always pretty much doubled the figures so 40,000 probably about right, theyre not in pro life crowd counting territory yet but not far off

  5. Pantoprazole

    I’d be interested if anyone could genuinely answer, why people bring Irish flags to these protests. I’m baffled by it. They’re not going to some sort of sports game.

      1. Pantoprazole

        You guess wrong. Perhaps I’m just not as well informed as you……What is the message that tricolours at these marches is supposed to send?

        1. HappyDub

          It’s to remind everyone there that no matter how much you protest, there is no point. Why don’t we just go full communism? We have the pretense that we live in a democracy, what a joke! Barely enough money for a few bottles of shitenbrau(pooenbrau as the admins call it) from Aldi after a month of working 60+ hours every week. Moan Burton probably thinks I should be happy with my lot, and fair enough, I’m not on the verge of dying or anything, but I am a greedy landlord away from being homeless. I work in a ‘skilled’ job, I’ve no savings, no car, no disposable income; the fact of the matter is, if I lived in Canada i’d be very wealthy. I can already see the comments already though :”F*** off to Canada then!”. Yeah, but, I don’t want to. For seven years now I’ve paid my debt, I don’t want a handout, I want a chance to progress in my career, but that just can’t happen here at the moment. I don’t put much stock in politicians, they can’t create jobs or directly improve the economy, but they can help to create the environment for that to happen. I wouldn’t even mind if they did f*** all! They actually hinder the progress of the country. For years I wondered why the likes of Beckett & Joyce f*****d off abroad, because they were smart, they could change things. But the problem was that they were smart; they realised there was nothing to be done, best off getting out of here and remember the good things, the good people. Anyway, good luck with the water protest thing, won’t matter, DOB always gets his way.

          1. Anne

            “I am a greedy landlord away from being homeless”

            Sad post to read. It’s hard not to feel defeated at times I’m sure..

            There seems to be nothing but greedy landlords, in Dublin in particular.
            No regulations enforced… the gov are not fit for purpose.

      1. mike

        as retarded as these ultra nationalist pics usually are, its equally possible youre sad enough to mock this one up yourself in quasi-creative pique of trolling

          1. Stewart Curry

            That’s like saying objections to Scientology are invalid because weirdos in Anonymous masks campaign against it.

      2. Bobby

        Most of the people I know who are protesting are pretty sound and at least somewhat engaged with the broader issues around these demos. It’s aul one’s and aul fella’s and young families strugglng who’ve made up the bulk of protesters. I walked through Stoneybatter today and there’s a solid crew of people there and they pretty clued in to what’s happening. These are the same type of peple showing support for the refugees in Europe, Calais or in asylum centres here, also the same people who are health workers, youth workers, social workers, teachers, trade workers etc. There are not that many Irish flags. In fact, I would welcome you to come to one of out meetings in Stoneybatter to meet these fairly ordinary, busy and decent people who you’ve written off as ‘a toxic breed of nationalist, freemen and constitutional obssessives.’ I suppose this is what the internet is for because I’m almost sure you’d either be too embarrased or ashamed or you’d be laughed out of the room if you said that to anyone there.

        And for a serious answer I would say that a lot of people still associate the Irish flag with resisting occupation, authority, imperialism, in a historical context anyway. I don’t share that view myself but it doesn’t take long to come to that conclusion if you think about it for a minute. There are not that many flagfs anyway, lots of people bring their own homemade signs which are wonderful :)

        Some people’s problems (apart from the natural hostilities coming from conservatives and right-wing people/groups) is that this mix of people is only toxic because it’s been such an effective mechanism for people from traditionally dispossed and voiceless backgrounds. Sorry Joniti, maybe your own rapid poltiical outlook has you blind to what’s actually been going on in community centres and on the streets of working-class communities all over Ireland. Your finger is not on the aul pulse of Ireland there..

      3. scottser

        You should read a little more widely jonotti, instead of self-pleasuring over mary ellen synon’s ‘articles’.

          1. scottser

            So you could be humiliated in front of real people, and not just internet commentators? Any time lad.

          2. 15 cents

            i have it on good information, that jonotti is the same lad runnin the irish voice facebook page.

    1. jungleman

      There is a very strong republican element to most protests against government in Ireland. The flag is tainted by its use I reckon. As is the protest.

        1. jungleman

          I’m not a Fine Gael supporter and I think enda kenny is thick as fupp. But the republican element to these protests is undeniable.

      1. Kev M

        you have obviously never attended one of these marches. you should go and watch the next one, local or national.

  6. Roger

    Today FM news were referring to it as an “anti-austerity” demonstration. Not a mention of water at all.

  7. Frilly Keane

    ‘Grand collection of flags there Jonoffi

    Kerry, Wexico, Greece, Mayo, Tip, Cork, Waterford, Waterford, Dublin …

    Stop making a tit of yerself and the Blueshirts Troll Brigades

      1. Frilly Keane

        Seriously. On a Sunday morning n’all
        Do ye have some alarm that triggers one’ve ye inta action?
        Or sum’ting

        Yere gas
        Not ha ha gas
        Just a sweet jaysus exasperation gas

          1. scottser

            Frilly’s contributions read like north kerry haikus.
            i mean that as a compliment. A weird, backhanded compliment.

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