Loudspeakers, drums, leaflets and placards greet TDs

THE main battle may have taken place in the Dáil chamber yesterday but a bitter second front also laid siege to the front gates of Leinster House from dawn to dusk.

As the nation's public representatives arrived fresh from their summer recess they were greeted with as wide an assortment of protests as Kildare Street has likely ever seen in one day.

No less than eight separate issues were being loudly and passionately addressed by hundreds of protesters armed with loudspeakers, drums, leaflets and angry placards.