It is unclear if the "harbingers of civil unrest", as Prof Patricia Casey called recent protests, will evolve into anything more serious but there has certainly been a shift in Irish society during this recession. The Sunday Tribune has identified several examples of anger reaching boiling point in recent weeks.

Bank tellers are spat on

Bank tellers were threatened and even spat on after mortgage lender Permanent TSB announced that it was going to raise interest rates on Friday 24 July.

The Unite trade union, which represents over 1,000 bank workers, issued a statement asking customers to restrain their anger. Colm Quinlan of Unite said that while anger at the decision was "understandable", people should bear in mind that staff "had no input into the decision, no prior knowledge of it and are doing their job in trying circumstances". He said: "We would ask that the public respects the personal dignity of regular workers."

Larry Broderick, the general secretary of the IBOA, which represents over 20,000 financial sector workers, said: "We are seeing this kind of abuse not just in the working day but even socially in the evening."

Farmers hang effigies and throw eggs

While Kathleen Henry displayed her anger in a dignified manner, some of her colleagues at the same protest in Cavan hung an effigy of Smith on a makeshift gallows.

On 23 July, up to 350 farmers heckled and jeered Taoiseach Brian Cowen as he officially opened a new road near Ballinasloe, Co Galway. Eggs were also thrown at Cowen's car as the farmers vented their fury.

A week earlier, the IFA held a protest at the gates of Cavan-Monaghan TD Margaret Conlon's private home and tried to prevent her from entering her driveway. Eggs were thrown at the house on the same night.

Paint bombs are thrown at ministerial car

Junior minister for labour affairs Dara Calleary was forced to seek protection in a garda jeep last Monday when Shell protesters threw balloons full of paint at his car in his own Mayo constituency.

Calleary was travelling from Belmullet in north Mayo to launch a new social services centre in Rossport when his car was hit with the paint-filled balloons at Glenamoy crossroads.

Up to 30 demonstrators gathered at the crossroads where Calleary's '08 Audi was covered in the red and yellow paint – the colours used in the global Shell oil company's logo.

Travel agent staff stage Grafton St lock-in

On Friday, staff at the Thomas Cook travel agents on Dublin's Grafton Street barricaded themselves into the office and claimed they will stay there "for as long as it takes".

They have vowed to continue their lock-in until senior management at the company offer them an improved redundancy package. The staff locked themselves in after they were given the news that offices at Grafton Street and North Earl Street were to close with immediate effect.

The closures were due to happen at the end of the August so staff were furious when this was brought forward by a month. Angry staff have accused senior management of "intimidation and bullying tactics". They say their right to take industrial action has been quashed with the early closure.

Waterford workers wage bin wars

A bitter dispute between Siptu members and their employer, private refuse collector Mr Binman, is now entering its 11th week in Waterford and Tipperary. The dispute centres on a workers' protest over proposed wage cuts.

Over the past 10 weeks, Mr Binman has brought in workers from its other plants and hired temporary staff to collect refuse in the city while the Waterford-based workers are on strike.

As the dispute continues, it has been claimed that many of the temporary staff coming in to carry out the Waterford collections during the strike have been threatened and intimidated.

'The Viper' Foley is hired to collect debts

Last Thursday, the Central Bank predicted unemployment could reach 15% in 2010. While jobs are being lost in almost every sector of Irish society, debt-­collection is one growth area.

Money is scarce and law-abiding people are making decisions in the recession that they would never have dreamt of during the boom. Cash-strapped people have got so angry that they are willing to call in heavy-handed debt collectors.

The recent case of Teresa Hand-Campbell is a case in point: she claimed she was harassed by employees of one of the country's best known criminals, Martin 'The Viper' Foley, who runs Viper Debt Recovery and Repossession Services.

There is anecdotal evidence of people being threatened by other debt collectors.