Trade union officials have claimed that over a hundred thousand people marched against austerity in Ireland on Sunday.
Public disquiet was evident on streets across the country less than 24 hours after the government formalised a promissory note deal with the European Central Bank.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has claimed the marches were a success despite the Government’s hard-won bank debt deal according to the Irish Times.
The paper reports on the various rallies to protest at spending cuts imposed by the banking crisis.
Trade union marches took place in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Sligo and Waterford.
Officials have claimed that 60,000 attended the Dublin protest although police offer a smaller figure of 25,000.
Congress general secretary David Begg told protestors that the campaign against the debt burden will continue until the European authorities fully honour the agreement reached last July to separate bank debt from sovereign debt.
He said: “There will be no more stoic little pixie heads and no more Mr nice guy.”
Begg added: “Congress will begin campaigning with 60 million trade union members in the European Trade Union Confederation.
“A situation where Irish people are paying 42 per cent of the European bank debt burden is unfair.”
Begg claimed to the Irish Times that around 100,000 people had taken in the series of demonstrations organised around the country today by the Irish trade union movement.
Demonstrators heard some dissenting voices claim the protests were ‘tokenism.'
Others said people need to ‘hear some real leadership from the trade union movement on how it’s going escalate resistance to austerity.'
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.seanomelb | Feb 12, 2013, 09:17 PM EST
Warrenpoint you have a shitb#g poster like clow gate who stated in a previous post that Pearse was a fascist racist. Clowngate continuesto give his farthings worth of crap
Portia_O'Neill | Feb 12, 2013, 08:51 AM EST
There are people living in Dublin in neighborhoods like Glasnevin who complain endlessly about their taxes going up but would never be seen marching in this parade. The reason of course, is that they have government jobs.
merefalow | Feb 12, 2013, 08:45 AM EST
its to late to wake up,the damage is fatal,an invasion unparalelled since the planting and ongoing and iriversible,while your children fly to the far corners of the world ,your jobs taken by strangers,and your labour to pay the debts of bankers who gambled the wealth of your labours,
WoundedKnee | Feb 11, 2013, 04:39 PM EST
Interesting statistic I see from ireland that the Irish media have all but buried, surprise surprise. Seems Nigerians last year sent back some 600 million euros to Nigeria from Ireland. That's not far from a billion bucks. Question is--where did they get that money?
WoundedKnee | Feb 11, 2013, 04:39 PM EST
Interesting statistic I see from ireland that the Irish media have all but buried, surprise surprise. Seems Nigerians last year sent back some 600 million euros to Nigeria from Ireland. That's not far from a billion bucks. Question is--where did they get that money?
WoundedKnee | Feb 11, 2013, 04:38 PM EST
Interesting statistic I see from ireland that the Irish media have all but buried, surprise surprise. Seems Nigerians last year sent back some 600 million euros to Nigeria from Ireland. That's not far from a billion bucks. Question is--where did they get that money?
thetint | Feb 11, 2013, 02:55 AM EST
There would have been more if the speaker wasn't the arch-traitor Begg. My work place voted not to attend when they found out he was speaking. He sat on the board of Bank of Ireland as it drove our country into the gutter.
Towngate | Feb 10, 2013, 10:38 PM EST
Dissenting commenters below - unite!Stick close together! (So we can tie you all together and drop you off at low tide!) This poster is a member of two (Honest) Irish Unions so I can justly ask: WHERE WERE the gallant worker members of IBOA - the Finance Union - when the country was screwed by their Banker employers? - still grubbing their fat paypackets and bonuses,I bet, while other Union members kept up the demand for top rates from people they knew couldn't afford them. ~~~ As for slaggging the European Union ~ without the billions paid to the so-called ' independant' Republic of Ireland (80% of which goes straight to Farmers and Food "Begor,have yeh seen the shockin' price of Harse-meat? - 'Tis gone awful dear!" ~ Wake up,Ireland! Smash the Union pixie-head crooks or do the decent thing, and choke on your horse-burgers and do us hard-working people of the rest of Europe a favour. Btw: The Sainted Connolly of fame and renown said the the deluded half-cock Pearse: "Look Pat, all that will happen will that Dublin will be in ruins and we will all be killed!" He was dead right! It's a mercy to his teachings and vision for the people that he didn't live to see the Ruin that the clowns that took over following 'Independance' made of the Whole Tragic Country!
aloistmartin | Feb 10, 2013, 09:15 PM EST
Where are all our Hollywood Celebrity Comrades when you need them ? Connolly-ist`s Unite !
warrenpoint00 | Feb 10, 2013, 07:15 PM EST
I agree Seano, it is obvious that some shitbag posters never did work in Ireland under the capitalist regime that existed there.Well done to the workforce in Ireland ,David Begg and the ICTU for sticking blue shirt Kenny,s nose in it.
seanomelb | Feb 10, 2013, 05:32 PM EST
The Irish are not fooled by Kenny's slight of hand in Brussels. Workers of Ireland unite and rid the country of fools like clowngate.
WoundedKnee | Feb 10, 2013, 03:37 PM EST
"Wake up Ireland! SMASH Your evil Unions!" Quite right, Towngate. Starting with the European UNION.
Towngate | Feb 10, 2013, 02:50 PM EST
These pathetic 'pixie-heads' should think about what damage their restrictive practices and closed shops have done to the economy and the ordinary honest Irish people. Wake up Ireland! SMASH Your evil Unions!
WoundedKnee | Feb 10, 2013, 12:33 PM EST
Pretty good turn-out. But it's hampered by its association with timeservers like Begg, who is about as left-wing as Joe Biden.