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70,000 people bring Dublin to standstill in day of protest

Protesters call on wealthy Irish to pay their fair share

By
KELLY FINCHAM
,
Irish Central.com Editor

Published Friday, November 6, 2009, 3:05 PM
Updated Friday, November 6, 2009, 3:45 PM

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70,000 people bring Dublin to standstill in day of protest | Irish News | IrishCentral




Read more: Dublin, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Ireland, Business, Jobs and Labor, Labor Unions
A section of the huge crowd which clogged up Mountjoy Square on their way to O'Connell Street in Dublin for the national day of protest
A section of the huge crowd which clogged up Mountjoy Square on their way to O'Connell Street in Dublin for the national day of protest

Dublin was brought to a standstill today as up to 70,000 people took to the streets as part of a national day of protest.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) organized eight rallies across Ireland to protest against the $4bn in public cuts expected in the Irish budget on December 9.

The rallies took place in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Sligo, Tullamore and Dundalk with Dublin by far the largest.

ICTU leader David Begg said a "more gentle way" was needed to narrow the fiscal deficit to 3  percent by 2013.

He slammed the planned cuts as "economic madness," and said they would stall any economic recovery and send the country "into a prolonged coma."

Jack O'Connor, the president of the services trade union Siptu blasted the Government for targeting the ordinary people of Ireland over the rich.

“We will not go away, we will not roll over, we will not surrender regardless of what they do,” he said.

"We insist the people at the top of society pay their contribution and that is the only solution to this particular issue.”

The Dublin Fire Brigade took part in the protest and chairman John Kidd said the government had  been "extremely unfair with the ordinary workers."

"We have never benefited from the 'Celtic Tiger'," he said. "We are asking the government for a fairer society." 

Kidd is one of the roughly 100,000 emergency workers who will next week vote on a 24-hour strike on November 24. 

The huge numbers at the rallies today will boost the hopes of union organizers who are planning the national strike.

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70,000 people bring Dublin to standstill in day of protest | Irish News | IrishCentral


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Most recent comments - See all comments

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Posted by jimmy12003 on Nov 09, 2009, 05:24 PM EST
its pointless striking in ireland when you are up against this government! these as-sholes are laughing at us! there leader Bertie Ahern caused the mess here in ireland and then resigned to stop himself from being exposed for coruption! now the current wan-kers are sitting back just waiting for the whole thing to come to a head, when the people just cant take it anymore and kick them out! the sad thing is though, that we havnt really got anyone to replace them! anyone here in a political position is only in it for themselves! so its really a loose loose situation!
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Posted by FastEddy on Nov 09, 2009, 01:52 PM EST
Strike! Strike! Strike ... the more g'ment workers that go on strike, the less g'ment will have to spend and the more cuts can be made. I'm not privy to all the details, but from my window here in high unemployment California, it appears that the strikes will be a benefit to Irish taxpayers. Got for it!
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Posted by plasticpaddy on Nov 07, 2009, 10:32 PM EST
The USA is in nowhere near as dire a situation as Ireland economically. I urge everyone to check out and and all of the OECD reports on Ireland, very interesting, and depressing.
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Posted by Madeleine on Nov 07, 2009, 03:06 AM EST
I see what is happening here in the United States and I think any rally is a good rally, it didn't work here though, nothing works here. I wish you luck, our economy is in the trash can , we are on the verge of a depression and its getting worse, we have never seen America like this before, They had a huge rally in front of the white house but there wasn't one thing about it on TV or in the newspapers so I couldn't tell you what happened, this is what we have become and I hope you have better luck.
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Posted by plasticpaddy on Nov 06, 2009, 04:12 PM EST
Let the workers rise and take back our government!


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