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Bankrupt clients from Ireland have used a Leicester solicitor and UK courts to wipe out more than €1bn debts taken out in the republic"

"A four mile exclusion zone has been set up around the Elgin Total oil platform in the North Sea due to a gas leak that may cause an explosion. "Hundreds of workers have been evacuated from the platform and other nearby installations, ships have been told to stay at least two miles away and planes at least three miles away. The Elgin Total platform is situated 150 miles from Aberdeen on the Scottish coast."

Ireland reported the GDP numbers for last year no surprise there, after a year's worth of austerity the proof is in the pudding, austerity doesn't work. The measures directed towards preventing the banking system from collapse have backfired with a vengeance. "The decision to nationalise all the major bank groups has landed the government with all their debts, which need to be serviced to avoid a default." As a result, Ireland is now asking to stay the most recent debt payment, while it restructures it's already insurmountable debt pile.

In anticipation of St. Patrick's Day, police cleared protestors from the Occupy Dublin site early Thursday morning. The Guardian reports that only 15 people were at the camp outside Ireland's Central Bank when it was raided.

Gardai survey the scene where the 'Occupy Dame Street Camp' was dismantled at the Central Bank in Dublin last night.

Ireland has signed a controversial amendment dubbed the “Irish SOPA” which reinforces existing copyright law amid widespread concern that it will encroach on Internet freedom. The new legislation will effectively allow copyright holders to press for legal action against Internet service providers and social networks which show content that infringes copyright legislation. It will force Internet service providers to effectively become censors, by blocking access to these sites.

The Irish government faces intense pressure to hold a referendum on the eurozone fiscal treaty after a poll that showed almost three quarters of the public want a vote on the agreement.

Mr Stewart told donegaldaily.com: “The austerity measures we have had imposed on us recently are not confined to the haulage industry. The hauliers have an agenda of their own, and that has to be respected – they cannot act on behalf of the whole country. Everyone is affected, and while we welcome the move from the hauliers, we want other groups to take this opportunity to get their arguments on the table as well, whether it is in relation to the household charge, student fees increases, septic tank charges or carbon tax and fuel prices.”

As Ireland's runaway boom years have given way to one of the steepest slumps of a developed country since the Second World War, the lives of middle-class professionals have been devastated by the crash

Protests will soon be in every country in some form. -- JB, Supervising Editor