As Europe’s debt crisis has ground on, with governments imposing drastic austerity measures, the Irish have taken the bad news with remarkable equanimity. While Spaniards marched through central Madrid and Greeks torched Athens, Ireland has been relatively calm.
Until now. A plan to raise €160 million ($212 million) with a new property tax of €100 per household has drawn massive criticism. Last weekend, demonstrators took to the streets to protest the tax, and the government has acknowledged that only about half of Ireland’s 1.6 million households had signed up to pay by the March 31 deadline.
