Water Charges Archives - Solidarity (Ireland)

Review: Fragments of Victory edited by Oisín Gilmore and David Landy

Fragments of Victory – The Contemporary Irish Left, edited by Oisín Gilmore and David Landy, Pluto, 2025 (above pic credit: Connolly Books) Reviewed by Michael O’Brien This collection of essays by various authors spans the economic crisis that began in 2008, the

May 26, 2025

News & Analysis·The North

North: Water charges – we won’t pay!

By Daniel Waldron The threat of water charges is back on the agenda. In a statement regarding the next Northern Ireland budget, Tory Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris said that “difficult choices cannot be deferred any longer” and that water charges are one of the

Feb 22, 2023

News & Analysis

Failure to invest in necessary infrastructure results in water contamination

By Conor Burke The quality of drinking water in Ireland has long been a topic of contention. Hardly a year goes by in which some incident of contamination isn’t reported. The latest occurrence of failures in our water supply network happened in

Sep 21, 2021

Trade union movement must harness mood for change

By Mick Barry TD “Real change” was the demand of huge numbers of people in the February election. Real change on housing. Real change on health. Real change in the pension age. Real change for climate justice. The demand for change was

Feb 28, 2020

Water charges battle

Oppose water charges through the back door

By Conor Burke From 1 July, Irish Water is seeking to implement excessive-use water charges of up to €500 per year. This will come as no great surprise to those of us who highlighted the programme for government agreed between Fianna Fáil

Jul 17, 2019

Breaking the rules of a rigged game – join the socialists today!

By Eddie McCabe It’s not a coincidence that three Socialist Party members who are Solidarity public reps were among those singled out from a protest of more than 500 people and stitched-up on charges of false imprisonment. Just as it’s not a

Jul 5, 2017

News & Analysis

Jobstown trial: Organise to oppose criminalisation of protest

By Katia Hancke Two years ago, many working class communities ravaged by austerity demonstrated enough was enough and got out on the streets against water charges. One such community was Jobstown in Tallaght, where a spontaneous protest inconvenienced Joan Burton for a

Dec 1, 2016

Anti-Water Charges·Campaigns & Issues·News & Analysis·Water charges battle

How the protest movement & boycott forced the suspension of water charges

The Fine Gael minority government was forced to suspend water charges. Michael O’Brien argues that this is a result of the protest movement that emerged in late 2014, the subsequent mass boycott of the charge and the fundamental weakness of this right-wing

Aug 8, 2016

News & Analysis·Water charges battle

Non-payment of water bills rises to 73% – abolish the charges now

Remember when a majority of people, by maintaining a boycott, put water charges on the agenda at the last election and 70% of the electorate voted for TDs opposed to the charge?

Jul 13, 2016

Latest·News & Analysis·Paul Murphy Column

This weak government can be beaten

By Paul Murphy TD “The reality is that a small clique of hard-left, Trotskyite politicians, who are quite upfront about seeking to overthrow the current system, are now arguably setting the political agenda.” (Shane Coleman, Irish Independent 17 May 2016) Although he

Jun 9, 2016

Water Charges