{"id":13246,"date":"2012-01-26T10:52:57","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T15:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=13246"},"modified":"2012-01-26T10:52:57","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T15:52:57","slug":"irelands-septic-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/01\/26\/irelands-septic-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland’s septic protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth sent me a link to this Independent.ie<\/em> article<\/a> which allowed Lise Hand to dig deep into the Irish septic tank issue while managing not to get too potty-mouthed:<\/p>\n

\n

These doughty lads of the West weren’t messing about with a bit of chanting and poster-waving in the manner of an, ahem, bog-standard protest outside Leinster House. Not a bit of it, having driven since dawn in buses up from the corners of Galway, the attitude was, when we’re out, we’re out.<\/p>\n

And so the Charge of the Septic Tank Brigade to the gates of Leinster was a colourful affair. They had brought a toilet with them and all, as a pertinent prop to illustrate their admanatine opposition to the introduction of a \u20ac50 septic-tank registration charge — a charge which affects rural Ireland, as it’s being imposed on almost half a million households who are not part of a public-sewage scheme.<\/p>\n

What’s more, if any tanks fail an inspection, householders will be obliged to upgrade or replace them, which could cost thousands of euro.<\/p>\n

And so, the several hundred men (and a few women) from the West were in fighting form on Kildare Street yesterday afternoon. And along with the toilet — which proved a handy seat for the protest’s organiser, Padraig ‘An Tailliura’ O’Conghaola from Rossaveal who was minding the megaphone and trying to keep a bit of order on proceedings.<\/p>\n

There was an impressive array of giant paintings on black banners, tastefully depicting images such as sunsets and sailboats and a puzzled-looking lassie sitting on a toilet.<\/p>\n

And there was quite a smorgasbord of slogans being waved about: from Winston Churchill’s observation, “We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket trying to lift himself up by the handle”; to more earthy exhortations, such as: “Septic Tank Charges are A Pain in the Hole”; and the bi-lingual “‘Cac’ Hogan RIP — Ireland’s Saddam Hussein”; to the pithy enjoinder, “Get A Grip — Stand Up to Europe”.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth sent me a link to this Independent.ie article which allowed Lise Hand to dig deep into the Irish septic tank issue while managing not to get too potty-mouthed: These doughty lads of the West weren’t messing about with a bit of chanting and poster-waving in the manner of an, ahem, bog-standard protest outside Leinster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,65,62,84],"tags":[629,337,33,720,244,661],"class_list":["post-13246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureaucracy","category-environment","category-europe","category-government","tag-dublin","tag-eu","tag-ireland","tag-protest","tag-publichealth","tag-regulation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-3rE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13247,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13246\/revisions\/13247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}