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Saturday 31 March was the deadline set by the Irish government for 1.86 million households in the south of Ireland to register for their new household tax. The €100 tax is an interim charge before the introduction of a new property and water taxes in 2013 and 2014. People were told that if they did not register and pay it by the time of the deadline they would face penalties and threat of court appearances and substantial fines of up to €2,500 and €100 for every day that this is not paid.

The Local Government Agency which is collecting the Household Tax and Minister for the Environment Hogan are tonight furiously spinning the registration figures to try and put a positive spin on what is a disaster for the government in terms of the huge opposition that exists in society to their new tax.

This year is the bicentenary of Dickens’ birth. Biographies, reissues and TV and film adaptations have poured out showing he still has immense drawing power even 140 years after his death. Dickens was a towering figure who dominated English literature for nearly 40 years, from the early runaway success of The Pickwick Papers in 1836 to the cryptic murder story, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, left incomplete at the author’s death in 1870.

We are in a battle for the hearts and minds of people up and down the country. It is clear that a huge majority of people are opposed to the Household Tax and Septic Tank rip-offs. Can we beat the intimidation and threats from the Government who are trying to force people into registering and paying? Can the campaign trump the fear factor and help give people the confidence to make a stand on this issue and fight back?

The report of the Mahon Tribunal is a damning indictment of the corrupt nexus between developers and establishment politicians, especially from Fine Fail.

Seldom before has an idea spread so quickly across the world. Within days tens of millions watched Invisible Children’s “KONY 2012” video as it went viral across the internet and social media. Shocked at the story of killing, rape and child soldiers, demands multiplied that “something must be done” against Joseph Kony and the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) he leads in eastern and central Africa.

"The European train will be leaving the station on January 1, 2013 and the Irish people should be on board." So declared Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the Dail on Wednesday morning in response to a question of mine relating to the Referendum on the EU Fiscal Compact which the government has been obliged to call. The Taoiseach was speaking in Irish as it was ‘Lá na Gaeilge’, with Leaders’ Questions in Irish. However, the impression he was trying to convey was false in any language, which is that rejecting the Fiscal Compact would somehow mean not continuing as a member of the European Union or indeed as part of the Eurozone.

It is clear that hundreds of thousands of households will refuse to register or to pay the household tax.  The only issue is whether this number will be more than half a million, more than three-quarters of a million or more than a million itself.  With big numbers deciding it is better to break the law than to break the poor, this is a key first step in a major campaign of civil disobedience.

Gardai raid and dismantle camp in the middle of the night

Raid an attempt to silence dissent before St Patrick’s Day