Irish Unions - from 'social partnership' to mass protest

#feb9demo The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) mobilised over 110,000 people in a massive protest against austerity. Marches and rallies under the ICTU slogan of 'Lift the Burden - Jobs not Debt' were held in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Sligo and Waterford:
http://www.irishtimes.com
/newspaper/breaking/2013/0209/breaking2.html

In an RTE report of the Limerick rally, ICTU representative Mike McNamara is quoted as saying that 1.8m working people are still being asked to pay a total bank debt burden of €64billion - a cost of the bank debt has been €9,000 per person in Ireland compared to an average cost of €192 per person in the EU as a whole. Mr McNamara told the crowd that the limits of what people can bear and tolerate has well and truly been exceeded - an economy must serve the people, not enslave them, adding that the Government was elected to be watchdogs, not lapdogs: http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0209/366914-marches/