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IT’S BEEN ANOTHER year of contentious issues with some like the abortion debate, the Budget and austerity measures dominating the agenda. For some campaigns, thousands of people took to the streets to protest, hoping their voices would be heard.
Here are some of the most notable protests of 2013:
The debate around the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill dominated the first part of this year with both pro-choice and pro-life groups taking to the streets.
Pro-choice campaigners in Dublin in January this year (Image: Niall Carson/PA).
Thousands of people took part in the pro-life 'Vigil for Life' in Dublin in June this year. (Image: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)
(Image: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)
Another pro-life rally in Dublin in July (Image: Sasko Lazarov).
And a counter demonstration by pro-choice campaigners on the same day (Image: Niall Carson/PA).
Thousands of pro-choice campaigners marched in September for a global day of action. (Image: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)
The pro-life campaigners even protested outside the minister's house during the second round of public hearings on the proposed legislation:
And both sides had a good turnout at the Dáil on the day of the vote on the new legislation:
(Image: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)
After the bill was passed in the Dáil, the pro-choice protest became more of a celebration:
(Image: Niall Carson/PA)
In February, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions coordinated 'Not Our Debt' marches in six counties to protest against the nationalisation of bank debts. There was a large turnout with numbers for Dublin reaching 25,000.
(Image: @StevieCMJ)
This year, 100 garda stations were closed as the force adjusted to budget cuts. Of the 100 stations that were earmarked for closure, 98 of them were only open on a part-time basis and 88 of them were served by only one garda. In county Dublin, 1,500 people gathered at Stepaside Garda Station in February to protest its imminent closure.
(Image: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
The HSE's plan to hire one hundred graduate nurses and pay them 80 per cent of the usual salary caused an uproar among nursing staff at the start of this year. Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Association and the Psychiatric Nurses Association protested outside HSE headquarters and urged graduates to boycott the new scheme.
(Image: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
More than 5,000 people protested against the Local Property Tax in April, while EU finance ministers attended a meeting in Dublin Castle.
(Image: Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland)/Facebook)
Meath man Tony Rochford also went on a hunger strike for more than 20 days in protest against the tax:
(Image: Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)
What began with a late-night vote at a local council meeting in Belfast about the number of days the Union flag would fly over the city hall, spiralled into months of protests and riots. Dozens of people, including police officers, were injured and more than 200 people were arrested.
(Image: Julien Behal/PA)
The Irish Farmers' Association staged a protest outside Dublin Castle in March against proposed EU reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy.
(Image: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)
And again in May. This time they brought their tractors:
(Images: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
Demanding that third-level maintenance grants be protected, thousands of students joined marches and rallies in October in Dublin, Cork and Sligo.
(Video: IT Sligo Students' Union/YouTube)
The Budget was announced in October this year with a number of controversial measures sparking protests by pensioners, young people and mothers.
On the day, there were scuffles between gardaí and protesters and a few people were even pepper sprayed:
(Image: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)
A few days later the demonstration against increased prescription charges and changes to income limits on medical cards for over 70s drew thousands of people to Dublin.
(Image: PA)
No one was pepper sprayed this time.
Did you take part in any of these protests? Tell us all about it in the comments below.
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Time to put everything on the table now – S&S, Croke Park hours, NQT pay and the new Junior Cert.. Time for both sides to fix it once and for all… this drip drip squabbling has to stop!!
100% and a no strike no blocking curriculum change clause also. Sign up or F off. They are the crew who were prepared to let 350,000 unemployed suffer and new teachers suffer the cuts and offer nothing to help…..
aw, kids will be sickened!
So will the teachers
The teacher’s should be ashamed of their lives.They have a neck to leave final year students sitting at home unsure of their future. Shame on them and there greed!…. who educated them but the state and the taxpayer giving them free college grants …..arrogance of the highest form this is the way they repay the respect that is given them.
Will students miss 3 days?
No.
Will teachers make up any and all missed time?
Yes.
I say this as a teacher who was on strike for 2 days on Oct 27th and again today.
I was in teaching my exam classes yesterday and gave them plenty of work to do today.
I was also a student in 2001 in my leaving Cert year and the teachers strikes that year made NO difference to my leaving Cert.
Leave out the hysteria.
Progress has been made.
Actually John ASTI members made every effort by agreeing to cooperate with non union teachers supervising, in order to keep schools open for exam year groups! It was the JMB and Department who wouldn’t allow this to work in many schools because they wanted to lock teachers out and break their resolve. In my school our Board went against the JMB recommendation and we were teaching exam classes. You should get your facts right before you go online attacking people and trying to sow division between workers!
You mean the respect you’re showing them now? Who educated you? I suppose it’s also the teacher’s fault you don’t know when to use “there” and “their” and how to use punctuation correctly?
Ye I u are one of them people the teachers are right to stand up and fight for things and rights of workers pay and conditions it time a lot took to picket lines Jim Larkin would turn in his grave if he what was going on in this country right now stand up to the bullie boys in power and take back worker rights were they belong
Its the predictive text i write with !…take it up with Motorola
It’s also the rubbish you spew.
#their
Dedicated students could use the free day for study!! Teachers will have taught them to use their initiative!!
@Liam H: Progress?? your representing an ‘antiquated’ workers union.
Your over paid based on OECD (non-bias report because they dont care about irish teachers)
Your working the system – grabbing every penny you can, how about reinvent yourselves… before Artificial Inteligence negates your your jobs 20 years from now!!!! (and it will happen)
The common theme here is antiquated…………….. you won’t have the ability to strike in 10yrs from now
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/irish-teachers-amongst-best-paid-in-world-despite-austerity-cuts-oecd-34228771.html
Irish teachers are the 6th highest paid in the OECD. On what basis do you believe they’re overpaid?
Climb down. Idiot union leaders……
@Thomas McGilly:
6th highest??
were a country of less than 5 million – we ‘CANNOT’ afford any number within the top 20.
Look its ok, in 10 years you will all be obselete based on AI and CBT, = specific pre-described 1 on 1 training per student delivered by a computer…………….
I’m sure you willl fight it………….
@john: Bless your naivete , they don`t care about the students, arrogance and greed are their currency, not to mention obtuseness, as anyone who has the misfortune to have gone through the secondary school system can verify.
Teachers wont do extra days to make up for the lost time
Don’t understand your logic, had they been locked outside the school gates they would not have been paid, now that they are back in school normality returns to some degree, more importantly the students continue with their education.
“There”. Who edumacated you, John?
@Gavin Fitzpatrick: Gavin, those numbers are based on teachers having full time contracts. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get a full time contract here compared to getting one in the UK for example?
Most teachers here start off on half hours if they’re lucky so that 33K that they are supposed to be earning is more like 12K after tax. These are things that OECD survey didn’t take into account.
@Saorlaith: That should be 30K.
You don’t need to bless me, but thanks. If they don’t care about the students then clearly the government doesn’t care about them either. Teachers have a right to strike like everyone else. If the teachers are not going to fight for equal pay for their colleagues then who is? You?
Yeah, the time will be made up by horsing the homework on the kids
Gavin, Not a teacher. Yes we can afford it if we prioritise. Finland has a small population but yet it pays its teachers well above an average graduate’s salary because it prioritises education.
Teachers were not supposed to be on strike tomorrow. They were going to work and being locked out by the government over supervision and substitution, the same as yesterday (Monday). For now it has been called off but I really hope you will one day report the correct facts about this industrial action!
Ah stop will ya,
Hope Enda and co don’t try bluffing them. Kids have missed enough. Equal pay is a must , regardless of bankers debt…
The teachers don’t want ‘Equal Pay’ as they would choke on their Cornflakes if the Dept of Education suggested getting rid of pay increments for being there longer teaching EXACTLY the same subjects as the teacher lower on the incremental scale.
What are you on about? No one has ever mentioned increments??
@Eoin Mc Donnell:
Exactly !! Teachers carry these banners calling for ‘Equal Pay’ ???
They are more than happy to teach and sit beside people being paid either more or less simply depending on length of service not ability yet claim they want equal pay.
NEWSFLASH !! Equal pay means EVERYONE gets paid the same for doing the same job.
As I said teachers want everyone one the same pay scale NOT equal pay.
@Willy:
Regardless of bankers debt??
you mean – irish citizen debt??????
why do you think we ended up in the situation we did back in 2008…………………………
Call for equal pay all you want…
look at the numbers….
the country doesnt have the money to pay you extra
Why are we pretending that is wasn’t bankers, developers and greedy property speculators who brought the economy to its knees? Should we pretend it was teachers and other public servants?
God you are an idiot…
Thanks for telling everyone at the last minute , kids delighted with the late change !
ASTI are toxic. Teachers should leave this so called union immediately.
How so exactly? They appear to the only union worth contributing some of one’s hard earned salary to by the looks of it
Your name suits you,
Maybe parents should picket the staff rooms tomorrow to show teachers that we don’t approve of their recent disruptive action. It’s blackmail in a different cloak what ever way you look at it.
I’m a parent and I fully support the teachers in their industrial action.
So you’re happy for your child to potentially work towards a career that doesn’t treat everyone equally??
It’s not the teachers fault. Read the facts.
Brendan, off with you.
Ah Jaysus Billy you’re kidding!
You never told us you had kids before…
Walking around with their hands out already are they?
Parents should come together to sue the ASTI. Holding teachers who want to work and children to ransom.
It reminds me of Super Quinn’s Yellow pack savers Thank God someone is Standing up for the young Teacher s and the New Garda Recruits Ps Equal pay for Equal Work
To find out through txt message at 9.30 is so not on…
@neo1: 21.53 and we still have not got txt message
Bit of rain and they caved.
God damn was looking forward to my 7 weeks off
I say after walking up and down the footpath today in the p1ssing rain was enough for them. You wouldn’t put a dog out in it!
Common sense prevails at last
I have never read such utterly misinformed comments, across the board, as here tonight.., regrettable people don’t go to the trouble of informing themselves before mouthing off. Don’t know where to start to correct the inaccuracies..but as a start, “Jarrett: go ahead with the parents and sue the Asti over ‘closing the schools’, except I hope your lawyer will be honest with you and inform you correctly..it was Boards of Managements decisions in individual schools, zero power by Asti to have such a remit.
Also, they not in/with Labour Workplace Comm/Court, specifically it’s the Teachers Conciliation Council.
Also, prudent advice to all to check the role of JMB in all of this.. And many other (historical) and IMPORTANT – but, now proven, very divisive, decisions around Education as a a whole, in recent times…. Interesting..
The teachers voted for this original pay deal
Paul: where and when did the teachers vote for a pay deal?
They didn’t.
No they didn’t, but they did agree to create that false S&S allowance in the first place to slip a few quid under the table. False, because it had always been their natural responsibility, like everybody else in the entire world of dealing with children, as part of the job/vocation.
cha ching
Less money in the November pay packet means less money to spend over the Chistmas holidays!
One would wonder after the silly monies thrown at the Garda dispute is the Labour Court the appropriate mechanism for resolving public pay disputes? Under normal circumstances ibec nominate the employers members of the court and the ictu(unions) the workers members but what happens when the employers, the government, also public servants, sit in?…you get a Kangaroo court to fleece the hard earned tax payers of thye state!
Gold stars for them all. Fair play.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO why why why i was looking forward to some sleep.
Bring on Artificial Intelligence which = no human teachers!!!!
Gavin if you can read this. Thank a Teacher.
@Gavin Fitzpatrick: And of course no need for workers in the private sector either. Machines can work 24-7-365. Of Banks, and car makers have been using robots and machines for years. My local bank has 3 cash/cheque lodgement/withdrawl machines and only 2 cashiers now. They used to have 4 cashiers and no machines.
Irish teachers are some of the best paid in the world.
For fair comparison the teachers pay has been “adjusted” to allow for cost of living across the OECD and EU countries. So no argument can be made re cost of living, taxes etc, etc.
- €48,430 is the equivalent Irish teachers top of the pay scale (actual max is €62,264 )
- €35,500 is the equivalent top of scale EU average
- €36,415 is the equivalent top of scale OECD average
The Government has no money – it belongs to the “Taxpayers”.
A petition has been set up on change org to give students an extra day off because it’s too short notice
Screw facts – Irish teachers (backed by irish ‘teacher politicians’) are the 5th best paid educators in the world!! – https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/sep/05/how-the-job-of-a-teacher-compares-around-the-world
Lets be honest – but unless your in the sub-100 you should never consider stricking on the future who will pay your pension!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ridiculous … the ASTI things of students as dogs , once the teachers get what they need it’s ok.
Aye the down-vote crew is out to get me but nobody has questioned me
Finally nASTI see sense
have your say