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It's hard to feel sorry for those unfortunates who swallowed the hype from the Government and obediently paid their water charges.

On the other hand those who stood up the the Government's bullying deserve a medal for as we commemorate the Easter Rising for they are the true inheritors of the spirit of 1916.

On the other hand those who paid up could be compared to those who watched from the sidelines as the greatest event in Irish history unfolded hoping it would all go away.

While that might seem harsh on people who maintain they were only obeying the law, it was this blind obedience to authority that has resulted in the gross inequality we see in Irish society.

Impose a tax and those who can afford to pay while those who can’t afford must do likewise because it’s the law, has been the way governments operated... until now.

A good proportion of the population rightly decided they had been screwed long enough and being charged for a resource for which they had already paid was unjust and they refused to pay.

An even bigger percentage decided even though the charges might be unfair they had to obey the law even if it impoverished themselves and their families.

(Image: Gareth Chaney Collins)

The question that might be asked of those who sent their euros to the dysfunctional utility that is Irish Water is at what point would they have deemed the charge to be unjust?

Would they have continued to hand over their cash if ordered to pay €500, €600 or even €1,000 for their drinking water because those are the kind of figures our Brussels overlords feel they should be charged?

If they would have continued to pay regardless of the amount they actually do deserve to be charged on the double instead of getting a refund.

This has allowed the Government to hammer people with penal income tax while allowing vulture funds pay virtually none on massive profits while evicting families out of their homes.

Anyone who watched the excellent Atlantic documentary which exposed the scandal of how this country's oil, gas and fish stocks were given away for next to nothing will be in no doubt that our water would have gone the same way.

While it is understandable those who paid water charges might feel aggrieved, they might take some comfort from the experience of the people who lived through the events of 1916.

Back then the vast majority of people were against the Rising but, in the end, they all benefited from the freedom won a few years later.

(Image: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin)

For the revolt against water charges was something of a rebellion where, for the first time in the history of the State, the people actually rose up and took to the streets at what they deemed was a tax too far and the Fine Gael/Labour Government panicked.

After being forced to bail out the banks and their bondholders and being hit with emergency taxes and pension levies, charging for water was a step too far.

The protesters were branded subversives and even compared to Isis when it was a mass uprising by ordinary people who had enough of being bullied by politicians.

Fine Gael still can’t get over the fact that this debacle has resulted in them being at the mercy of Fianna Fail while Labour fear “water charges” will be chiselled on the party’s tombstone as “cause of death”.

Only yesterday Fine Gael TD Jim Daly demanded people refusing to pay water charges should be hit with monthly fines.

Get over it Jimmy, it’s water under the bridge unless you want people out on the streets again.

This week the President presented a medal to the Defence Forces in recognition of the role played in the 1916 commemorative events.

A similar award should be struck and presented to the citizen army of protestors who took to the streets against water charges for they secured our freedom from unjust taxes.