Students rioting in town

[ballinaman]

If the cnuts were applying themselves, stomping the pavement in search of employment or heavens forbid
working a part time job to fund their education...they wouldn't have the time to be at this shite

You're ignorance is outstanding.

case in point....expensive education is clearly lost on lads like you anyway

Go on so, educate me on your knowledge of education and it's costs in Ireland at the minute.
Course there was gonna be a few gobshites who were looking to make a name for themselves in a crowd of that big.

I have no sympathy for students who go to doddy fee paying secondary schools for 6 years and then have the cheek to complain about an extra 1,500 euro increase. fcuk them. There should be someone on the gate UCD and any student driving a mini cooper or golf into college should automatically get the fee increase.
I do feel sorry for the students who it will hit hard though. A year in 3rd level is expensive enough anyways, jaysus, i only scraped by for my 4years and i'm paying off my loans from in Australia ffs!

[nrico2006]

Some good posters anyway 

Great reflection on the education they received when they can't even spell the Taoiseach's name right.

[thebigfella]

Anyone see these 25000 who were protesting yesterday? I didn't, 2000 at the most and a few other wandering about like gobshites.

[gallsman]

I say fair f**ks to them. 

The country is fucked because people are willing to take it up the hole, they'll do plenty of crying on internet discussion forums about the situation (see several threads on this board) and then when a crowd actually get off their holes the same people will belittle them, tut and shake their head, rush to high horses etc

Pathetic.

Agreed, but then having the cheek to complain about Gardai heavy handedness? If I did something illegal, but for a good cause, I'd be aware of the responsibilities and repercussions.

[ziggysego]

If the cnuts were applying themselves, stomping the pavement in search of employment or heavens forbid
working a part time job to fund their education...they wouldn't have the time to be at this shite

[Declan]

My daughter was on the protest march yesterday and I fully encouraged her to go. No private secondary school - the local community college. Worked hard got a great LC and the course she wanted. Has a part time job partly funding her and said there was a great crowd there yesterday. Herself and her mates marched carried their placards blew the whistles and adjourned to the pub. Hopefully more groups will take to the streets and change this country for the better.

[Hound]

My daughter was on the protest march yesterday and I fully encouraged her to go. No private secondary school - the local community college. Worked hard got a great LC and the course she wanted. Has a part time job partly funding her and said there was a great crowd there yesterday. Herself and her mates marched carried their placards blew the whistles and adjourned to the pub. Hopefully more groups will take to the streets and change this country for the better.

But Dec, the country is in a complete mess. Between tax and cuts we have to find something like €6 billion this year.

We're all going to have to suffer because of it.

What are the protests supposed to achieve?

It seems to me that everyone has the attitude, that while of course acknowleding that the country is in a mess, it wasnt their fault, therefore nothing should be cut or imposed that impacts on them.

To me this reminds me of the Croke Park deal.
The students should be celebrating in the streets about how lightly they're getting away (not that I think they should pay more) instead of the "woe is me, and fook everyone else" protests.

[Declan]

But Dec, the country is in a complete me

Correct and my daughter and her generation will be the ones paying the cost for the next 25 years

Between tax and cuts we have to find something like €6 billion this year

Only if we stick to the "only game in town" which is the 2014 deadline without restructuring which is unsustainable- Even the dogs in the street know this.

We're all going to have to suffer because of it.

agree

What are the protests supposed to achieve?

Each interest group has their own agenda so the USI would hope to influence the budgetary decisions around fees- They may or may not succeed. It also shows that hey care about the country and in my opinion it's better than sitting in the PAv complaining about things

It seems to me that everyone has the attitude, that while of course acknowledging that the country is in a mess, it wasnt their fault, therefore nothing should be cut or imposed that impacts on the

To me the only people who have this attitude are the people that caused it in the first place- The bankers, developers and politicians. Ordinary people have suffered hugely over the last two years and have seen jobs lost pay cuts increases in bills etc yet there is no sign of the "golden circle" of people in this country contributing at all. I include  higher paid Public servants, Judges, Semi State, Quangos Trade Union Chiefs, Chairmen etc in this group as well

The students should be celebrating in the streets about how lightly they're getting away (not that I think they should pay more) instead of the "woe is me, and fook everyone else" protests.

What have they got to celebrate Hound? The prospect of being unable to afford to stay in college and the consequences that this will have on their future career choices? We give lip service in this country to all sorts of ideals and yet at the end of the day continue to vote in liars, Cheats, Crooks, Gombeens and any other type of caricature you care to mention. If it takes a huge social upheaval for the plain people of Ireland to actually participate in a grown up society with the responsibilities that this entails I'm all for it.

My own belief is that the local community is the starting point for the recovery but words like community, solidarity, togetherness are bandied about and when put onto a national scale are seen as some sort of "socialism" which brings it's own connations for people- God knows why?

The other thing that really pisses me off is that in a supposed "Christian" country the ideals of the main prophet of that religion namely Jesus Christ are routinely expressed but actually if the people who run this country and who are largely educated in that Ethos even followed 5% of the belief system we would have a much fairer society.

Anyway going off on a rant here. I gave the following quotation to my daughter yesterday as she went out and they still hold true for me:

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.


 

[An Gaeilgoir]

My daughter was on the protest march yesterday and I fully encouraged her to go. No private secondary school - the local community college. Worked hard got a great LC and the course she wanted. Has a part time job partly funding her and said there was a great crowd there yesterday. Herself and her mates marched carried their placards blew the whistles and adjourned to the pub. Hopefully more groups will take to the streets and change this country for the better.

But Dec, the country is in a complete mess. Between tax and cuts we have to find something like €6 billion this year.

We're all going to have to suffer because of it.

What are the protests supposed to achieve?

It seems to me that everyone has the attitude, that while of course acknowleding that the country is in a mess, it wasnt their fault, therefore nothing should be cut or imposed that impacts on them.

To me this reminds me of the Croke Park deal.
The students should be celebrating in the streets about how lightly they're getting away (not that I think they should pay more) instead of the "woe is me, and fook everyone else" protests.

Damn right, i also see Richard Boyd Barrett and his ilk were involved as well yesterday, hijacking every issue for personal electoral gain from now on in to ballot box day, what a fine country we live in.

[Bogball XV]

They had a right to protest, but like the pensioners last year, their issue deserves very little public sympathy imo.
A student loan system of sorts would seem like the fairest option to me, that shouldn't restrict kids from any background from going to college, although I'd be in favour of means tested grants to encourage those from particularly badly off backgrounds.

[Lawrence of Knockbride]

Has the increases in fees been confirmed?

[muppet]

If the cnuts were applying themselves, stomping the pavement in search of employment or heavens forbid
working a part time job to fund their education...they wouldn't have the time to be at this shite

450,000 unemployed now. A rise of over 300,000 in a few years and that doesn't take into account the return of mass emigration. And you want them to find a job! Is this Tyrone's Own 'let them eat cake moment'?

[gallsman]

I was at a debate last year where Rochard Boyd Barrett was one of the speakers (he was running some anti-globalisation lark at the time). Came across very porrly and unprepared. He was able to quote a few facts and figures but when grilled on each issue he crumbled pretty dramatically.

[Tyrones own]

If the cnuts were applying themselves, stomping the pavement in search of employment or heavens forbid
working a part time job to fund their education...they wouldn't have the time to be at this shite

450,000 unemployed now. A rise of over 300,000 in a few years and that doesn't take into account the return of mass emigration. And you want them to find a job! Is this Tyrone's Own 'let them eat cake moment'?

Course not muppet....simply lean on the tax payer for entitlement hand outs
like all the other useless cnuts otherwise known as welfare recipients who wouldn't know a days work if it fell on them!

[Evil Genius]

450,000 unemployed now. A rise of over 300,000 in a few years and that doesn't take into account the return of mass emigration.

I hadn't realised it was quite that bad, so I did a quick Google for equivalent unemployment rates in Europe.

And even allowing for differences in calculation, and a set of figures that only goes as far as July 2010, there are some pretty shocking divergences:

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=z9a8a3sje0h8ii_&met=unemployment_rate&idim=eu_country:IE&dl=en&hl=en&q=unemployment+rate+republic+of+ireland#met=unemployment_rate

The EU average is 9.6%

Random others include:
UK = 7.7%
ROI = 13.9%
Germany = 6.8%
France = 10.1%
Greece = 12.2%

Meanwhile, Spain was listed at a whopping 20.5%, though I saw the other day that the September figures saw the first improvement in three years, down to "only" 19.8%:
http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/2010/10/31/spanish-unemployment-rate-falls-below-20-mark/

When you add to this historically high unemployment rates in the USA, it means that the traditional answer to high unemployment in Ireland (emigration), may not be so feasible as formerly - especially when now competing for what few jobs there are with Poles, Romanians and Portugese etc