Actually if you look at what happened in the north, you would have seen that it was sinn fein that stopped the budget in its tracks over the welfare reform. The tories had to come up with more money to help push it through. Not great I know but at least , out of all the parties here, they had the balls to stand up and say no. And by the way, they are opposed to water charges here as well. As to wether Martin would have signed the law , who knows, maybe yes , maybe no. But hey great job at trying to take attention away from the real guilty people , you know , the ones who brought the law in.
If you do not like the way that the people protested, then why don't you try lobbying the politicians to take the right of protest away. I love how some people seem obsessed about how the country appears to the outside world, when the whole world knows that the country was driven to the brink of bankruptcy by idiot/corrupt leaders and bankers. But for gods sake, show the president some respect