A 2.5 metre ‘We Won’t Pay’ banner was unfurled from the 13th century King John’s Castle in Limerick on Saturday as part of the national day of action against water charges.
Paddy O'Brien from Birdhill Co Tipperay, and University of Limerick politics student Steven Marren (22) from Canada, braved the bitterly cold to climb to the top of Limerick's medieval castle where they unveiled their protest flag.
“It [the castle ]is a monument in Limerick, you can’t pass by without noticing it. We were getting cars honking at us all the time.
“People walking along the bridge giving us fists salutes, it was fantastic, people were noticing and that’s the most important thing to get noticed, not to just have this in our houses but to be on the street, to be noticeable and to make aware the of the opposition that what it is about,” he added.
The men flew the banner on top of the turret for half an hour.
“It was very cold and breezy. We put up the banner and we had it weighted down. The wind caught it a couple of times but I think we got our message across, “ said father of four Paddy O’Brien.
“I think a lot of Irish people have had it now, this is the last straw and we are not paying.” he added.
King John’s Castle was one of twelve locations in Limerick where protests and information leaflets were distributing as part of the ‘We Won’t Pay Campaign’.
The turnout at the locations for today’s day of action in Limerick was in no way comparable to the massive numbers who turned out for previous protests however organisers insist the movement against the charges is as strong as ever.
Other areas included Corbally, Dooradoyle, Kings Island Community Centre, Watchhouse Cross and Roxboro in the city and Croom and Newcastlewest in the county.
Speaking in Limerick city centre 'We Won't Pay' campaigner David Vallely (30) insisted support for the campaign has not lessened.
“We had a meeting on Thursday where we had 300 people at it. That’s as big as we have always had. I think what we are seeing now is that is a conscious understanding by people that protests are fine but we have to actually move up a scale of struggle now we have got to move into non payment.
“Get into our communities mass protest have a roll in boosting confidence but the key tasks that we are doing now is going into communities what we are seeing now is hundreds of people dotted across the city doing activities and things like that and that’s going into the communities bringing that message out to people.”