The Cork march - story of a hijacking

THE CORK MARCH, April 9^th

Went to the Cork march on Saturday last, their first, and no point in trying to sugar-coat this – it was a disaster. 

I had thought the intention was to have a non-political people’s protest, much like our own in Ballyhea, everyone united behind the single issue of separating the bank/bondholder debt from the sovereign debt, then treating that bondholder debt as it should have been treated from the start – a European problem.  What happened, however, was that a single political party, whom I won’t even bother to name, hijacked the parade and used it for their own purposes. 

They had their own broad banner which they attempted to force to the front of the march, bypassing several rows of protesters – I had words with the male banner-bearer, informed him that I wasn’t there to march under any party flag or banner, and he reluctantly dropped back.  Then there was their man on the megaphone, an adolescent leading his party aficionados in juvenile obscene chants – this as we were marching down a packed Patrick Street in mid-afternoon, people of all ages and persuasions looking on.  Eventually my daughter had a word with him and he dropped the obscenities but the damage was done, the impression created that far from being a mature and responsible protest, this was just another noisy and ragged parade.

En-route, and afterwards in the Grand Parade, that same party were on a recruiting drive, handing out their own propaganda pamphlets.  When it was over I had serious words with a few of their number, told them how I felt.  They denied that they had hijacked the parade – I argued otherwise.  No other party had brought its own banners, its own placards, its own flags, no other party was chanting its own slogan, no other party was on its own recruiting drive.  It wasn’t just selfish, it was myopic – this is a national issue, adversely affects us all, but what chance of uniting the nation on it with this attitude?

I repeat, this is a non-political campaign; party political banners are as out of place there as they would be in Thurles on May 29^th for the Cork/Tipperary Munster championship match.  All those who marched on Saturday in Cork should be willing to march with the rest of us in protest at that dastardly deal done last November, shoulder to shoulder, marching as a nation united under just the one banner – NO TO BONDHOLDER BAILOUT.

I put this to the leader of that party unit in Cork but he wasn’t having any of it – this, he complained, would be centralising everyone.  Well, if we can’t unite on a single issue like this, what chance have we?  In fairness to the organisers – and I spoke briefly to Tom Dooley – this was not what they had had in mind; the protest was simply ripped from them by people who have far more experience of taking to the streets.  A pity.  Unless there are radical changes, I won’t be going back.

Regards, Diarmuid O'Flynn.

The sixth march

THE SIXTH MARCH – April 10^TH 2011

We haven't gone away, we’re not going away – despite a number of factors that worked against us, the sixth Ballyhea Bondholder Bailout Protest march took place today.  Our U-14 hurlers were playing in Cork, our intermediates were in league action, one of our farmers had a cow down, another was dehorning and castrating young bulls, while a third was taking advantage of the weather and spreading slurry, etc. etc. (that’s the kind of community this is), and still the numbers turned out, still we marched.

Again, we reiterate our aim – the deal done between our discredited government and the IMF/ECB last November wasn’t just unsustainable, it was plain wrong.  To saddle a nation with the private debts that a few immensely stupid decision-makers with a few immensely stupid banks had negotiated with these bondholders, who themselves were immensely stupid to have made the loans in the first place, is unfair, unjust, immoral.  That private debt MUST be decoupled from the nation’s sovereign debt then treated for what it is, a European problem.

In the RTE Freefall programme shown last week, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern held his hands out to the nation and claimed innocence – sure no-one told him he was setting the nation’s economy on fire; this to a backdrop of a series of respected economists warning of exactly that scenario, year after year, starting as far back as 2003.  Since last November, when that deal was signed, those same economists have been saying – mistake, major mistake, potentially catastrophic mistake.  In two years’ time, when the ECB has shovelled enough billions into our banks to have paid off the bondholders, thus leaving us with what will then be an unsustainable sovereign debt on which we will certainly default, will Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan be holding out their hands and saying – but, no-one warned us?

Let this government know our strength, let Europe know our anger.  Contagion – spread the word.

Regards,

Diarmuid O'Flynn.

The (wild) bondholder

THE (WILD) BONDHOLER – by Diarmuid O'Flynn, the People’s Protest

I’ve been a bondholder for many a year

I’ve spent all me money on whiskey and beer

But now I’ve got troubles and problems galore

And I never will play the bondholder no more

CHORUS - And it’s no, nay, never; no nay never no more

I’ll play the bondholder, no never, no more

2

Ireland was booming, the banks wanted cash

I had billions to spare so I gave it a lash

The property market was growing like hell

My money poured in there, this boom to propel – CHORUS

3

Soon there came problems, the bubble went burst

The banks were in trouble, I feared for the worst

Ah but then came redemption, September Oh-eight

A big warm blanket, guaranteed by the State – CHORUS

          4

We were back in the clover, our bonds looking good

ECB, our big brother, made sure that they would

Another agreement, in two thousand and ten

The Irish Republic, bamboozled again – CHORUS

          5

But now we have problems, there’s movement afoot

Trouble a-brewing, down at the grassroot

Ballyhea started marching, now it’s spreading around

Contain this contagion, or our bonds may get burned - CHORUS

Freefall

http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1095155
http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1095662
Links to a couple of programmes which, if you have an hour or so to spare, will tell you almost everything you need to know about what happened to us over the last decade.

The Ballyhea march format

For our first march, on March 6th 2011, we had 18 people in total, two A4-size sheets stating in not very legible form from a distance of more than about ten feet, BALLYHEA SAYS NO! TO BONDHOLDER BAILOUT; we were more like a motley crew just out for a short stroll than a protest march, but after four more outings, we in Ballyhea have gradually come up with the following format:

1. Just two banners, each about 8’x18”, one for the front of the march, one for the back; the front banner states that BALLYHEA SAYS NO! TO BONDHOLDER BAILOUT; the rear banner says the same, with the addition underneath of JUST A 10-min MARCH, PULL OVER AND JOIN US – this banner is on poles, is held high and faced rearwards so it can be read by several of the trailing cars.

2. No other banners or placards – it’s a single message and the banners front and rear say it all.

3. No chanting, no slogan, rhyming or otherwise.

4. It’s not a silent march (though this would be hugely powerful as a spectacle) but it is quiet, soft conversations going on up and down the march.

5. Lines of three or four, shoulder to shoulder, arms linked across the shoulders in a display of solidarity; if there are kids in the line, hands held.

6. March held at the same time, on the same day every week, from the same starting point along the same route – 11.45am on Sunday morning, from the church car-park to the speed-limit sign on the Cork side of the village and back to the car-park.

All the above evolved over the five weeks of marching so far, and all have a reason:

If we allow other banners/placards, soon we would have various political groupings taking over sections of the march – this is non-political, and in the same way that every man, woman and child in the country is suffering the effects of the extra taxes and extra cuts, we want every man, woman and child to feel they should be part of this protest; that’s employed, unemployed, employee, employer, right, left, centre, old, young and all ages in between, female, male, native, settler; all are welcome, and will be made to feel welcome.

If we have chants it may frighten off those of a quiet disposition, but there’s another reason; every protest march we’ve ever known has been noisy, raucous – as anyone who has ever been in a long-term relationship will surely know, silence too can be a very powerful weapon!

Linking arms across the shoulders is a powerful visual statement of our own bond, a more powerful bond than anything held by the bank creditors.

Same time, same channel – this is an effort at consistency.  If we can get every community marching at the same time on the same day, for that quarter of an hour every week it will bring the whole country together in common cause.  When has that ever happened?

We are totally against major disruption, against any kind of destruction, against confrontation with the Gardaí or anyone else.  As the momentum builds, however, we do plan on extending the campaign, to have mass marches in different areas on different Sundays – significant dates - to pull it all together occasionally.  We hope to kick this off with a central march in Ballyhea on Easter Sunday, the 95^th anniversary of the 1916 Rising, with all the groups from the various areas coming to join us.  Ye bring the sandwiches, we’ll put on the kettle…

The above are guidelines only, with our reasons for same outlined, but we would stress here – we are only amateurs at this protest business, and everyone is free to do their own thing.  If it was made a standard protest, fine, but if you opt to do things differently, why not?  The most critical thing here is to get out and protest, however you choose to do it.

Regards, Diarmuid O'Flynn.

The basic questions

We’re hearing a lot of questions lately about how much we, the Irish people, can afford to pay, about whether we can afford to carry the additional burden of the private bank/bondholder debt imposed on us by the ECB on top of our own sovereign debt.  There’s talk of the ECB tweaking the inflated interest rate they are charging us for their loans, of even perhaps extending the life of the debt, as they look for ways to squeeze every last drop from us.  But what of the more basic questions, the more pertinent questions?

1.  The initial bad investment was made here by the bondholders, which then enabled the banks to make THEIR bad investments, which in turn allowed the developers to make theirs, then in turn again those who bought houses and properties etc. etc.; all the above have now suffered hugely, bar one – those who started it off.  Is it right that those bondholders should now see that bad investment paid off, in full?

2.  Most of those loans, up to 100 billion euro, were taken out by less than 100 decision-makers at the top of the Irish banking system; a) why should all of us, the Irish people, be held accountable for that recklessness by a few, and b) why are those bondholders NOT held accountable for their recklessness, for the fact that they didn’t carry out their own due diligence?

3.  Is it right that these bonds should now be paid off – in full – by us, the Irish people, most of whom had no hand, act or part in any of this, when we are already paying a massive price for the crash of a property boom inflated by the injection of all these billions?  What moral justification is there for that, for demanding that we pay twice – in effect – for the seriously flawed judgement of these bondholders?

These are the most relevant questions of all, and they should be asked by everyone in this country, again and again, until we get credible answers.  In tiny Ballyhea here in North Cork we’re saying ‘No to the bondholder bailout,’ and we’ve been saying it now for five weeks, a protest march at the same time every Sunday, 11.45am; Fermoy have taken up the call, and we now ask every other parish/village/town and city to join us.  Our cause is just, our questions legitimate; we will have answers.

Regards,

Diarmuid O'Flynn.

Ballyhea bondholder bailout protest - the fifth march

April 4th 2011

Dear Sir/Madam;

BALLYHEA SAYS NO! TO BONDHOLDER BAILOUT

The fifth march in the above weekly People’s Protest took place in Ballyhea on Sunday last, again at the regular time of 11.45am.  In what is often presented in deliberately complex and diversionary terms, our protest is based around a few simple and straightforward points:

·        1) Through a combination of factors we have been engulfed in an economic tsunami.

·             2) We, the Irish people, have already suffered hugely; jobs lost, people lost, salaries slashed, levies imposed, tens of thousands in negative equity – on and on.

·          3) The previous government, those who – through their ineptitude – were hugely to blame for getting us into this mess, have paid a massive price, both parties blitzed in the last election.

·      4) Our banking-system is destroyed, no longer functioning as a banking-system should, the price paid for the reckless lending that inflated the nuclear property bubble/bomb.

·        5) Through all this carnage, the bondholders, those who fed the billions to the banks who fed the property bubble, remain untouched and – by orders of the ECB – untouchable.

In Ballyhea, we say ‘no’ to that, and every Sunday at 11.45am until such time as we are heard, we will continue to say ‘no’.  It’s wrong, pure and simple. 

Everyone in this country is already paying a very high price for the recklessness of our bankers, our developers, our government, paying a high price also for our own foolishness in being persuaded by those bankers/developers/politicians.

What price are those bondholders paying for their bad investment, for their poor judgement, for their ineptitude in carrying out due diligence before bankrolling our madcap banks?  The ECB have demanded that we cover the losses of those bondholders – I repeat, in Ballyhea we say no; we’ve suffered our share, let the bondholders suffer theirs.

Contagion; for a variety of reasons the ECB is terrified of it – let’s give them another.  We ask now that parish by parish, village by village, town by town, city by city, the rest of the country join us in our protest, and give our new government our universal backing as they try to get the ECB to see reason.

Regards, Diarmuid O'Flynn.

A Call To Arms

April 1st 2011

A few bullet points to explain the on-going weekly Ballyhea Bondholder Bailout Protest march (every Sunday at 11.45am, our fifth march coming up this Sunday):

·        Since the dawn of time most wars have been about rape and pillage, about slaughter and plunder.

·        The insistence by the ECB in the deal struck with a weak and discredited Irish leadership last November that the bondholders – THEIR bondholders, in the main – be repaid in full was tantamount to a declaration of war on the Irish people, a massive financial yoke placed across our shoulders, ‘tribute’ to be paid to Europe for decades.

·        It’s a bloodless war, no actual rape and slaughter, but we are decimated nevertheless, our youngest, our best and brightest, forced out to seek shelter and succour abroad.

·        Even after all the goings-on of Thursday, the bondholders, those economic gamblers whose billions fuelled the inferno that still rages in this country, are to be left untouched, no price to be paid by them even as we, through penal budget after penal budget, buckle under the yoke fashioned by them.

·        Europe has been quoting ‘moral hazard’, that the Irish have to be taught a lesson – where is the ‘moral hazard’ as applied to these bondholders?

Make no mistake about it, we have been conquered, enslaved, our leadership coerced into accepting a deal that has crippled their own people.  We face huge odds, yes, but if our leadership don’t have the courage to fight on our behalf then we fight for ourselves.  There is still at least €35 billion at stake but it’s not just the money – it’s our sovereignty, our freedom.

In this fight, we need recruits.  The first battleground is Ballyhea, and we’ve been marching now for a month, every Sunday at 11.45am.  Join us, either in your own community or in ours.

Regards,

Diarmuid O'Flynn.

THE FOURTH MARCH

Ballyhea

Charleville

Co. Cork

To whom it concerns, and it still concerns us all;

Again today, again after second Mass in Ballyhea, we held our protest march against what was imposed on us by the ECB last November.  A bailout they called it, and bailout it was alright – a bailout of the bondholders.  It wasn’t a loan either; national bondage is what it was, a people made to assume a burden that wasn’t theirs.

We have a sovereign debt which is ours, and ours alone.  We can point the finger as we like for the current crisis in the public purse and there is more than enough blame to go around – the previous government, inept (at least) as it was; the unions who colluded with them in the rise and rise of the public service wage and pension bill; the ineffective opposition who themselves appeared to be unaware of the looming problems and were happy to keep their own snouts in the trough; and of course we the people, who were only too happy to take all that was being handed out.  As we try to balance the books and get our house back in order we’re paying a heavy price, all of us (those at the bottom of the scale a heavier price than most, but that’s another argument), but that is our debt.  As a sovereign nation, as an honourable nation, we should pay that debt, and we will.

There is another debt, however, the bank/bondholder debt that was imposed on us by the bully-boys of the ECB last November, a debt that was imported from outside.  Those who staked their money on the Irish construction industry, who provided the billions to our banks to fuel the flames that now threaten to engulf us all, were at least as greedy as any single one of us here – surely now they too must feel at least the same level of pain? 

There are people here who were unsecured, who have lost everything – the same rules, surely, should apply to unsecured bondholders? 

There are people whose homes are now worth only a fraction of what they were worth, and who must suffer the consequences of that – those bondholders whose bonds are now worth only a fraction of the original should surely suffer the same fate, yes? 

And what of the ECB itself; a currency was launched with great fanfare a few years ago but – we now know – there were serious flaws.  The ‘one-size-fits-all’ interest rate, the low cost of borrowing - that contributed hugely to the inflation of the property bubble here; the fallout now as the euro comes under attack is also a fault of the incomplete thinking when the new currency was launched.   

Is all of that our fault here?  Demanding now – as the ECB did last November – that the Irish people, as a whole, should shoulder the full burden of all the bank/bondholder debt, is wrong.

In this small parish, we protest that wrong.  It is not a political protest, it is a moral protest.  Last November the ECB came in and rode rough-shod over us, and perhaps – with all their sermons on how we should conduct ourselves – they feel that underfoot is where we belong; we don’t.

We are not trying to attack our own government here, trying to undermine them – far from it.  Through our stand, our march, we are offering them our backing, our support, our courage.  We are a small enough group (though growing) but we believe we have the backing of the vast majority in our parish; we are a small enough parish but we believe we have the backing of the vast majority in this country.  The sovereign debt is our debt, an Irish debt, and that we will pay; the bank/bondholder debt is a private debt, is a European debt, is a European problem – that debt, we will not pay, and it should never have been coupled with the sovereign debt.

We demand now that the bank/bondholder debt should be decoupled from the sovereign debt, should be dealt with separately on a European level; those who fuelled the fire here should also taste the flames.  This Sunday again, and every Sunday until we get satisfaction, we will continue our protest; meet in the church car-park, march begins at 11.45am sharp.  Up to the speed-limit sign and back, less than ten minutes, no placards, no sexy slogan; a small march in a small parish, but making a big point.  Join us, please.

Regards, Diarmuid O'Flynn.

THE PEOPLE'S PROTEST in a nutshell

THE BALLYHEA BONDHOLDER PROTEST MARCH EXPLAINED

Your household has fallen on hard times, the bank sees you as a bad bet and will lend you money only at a penal rate; as parents of a growing family you head for your local friendly Credit Union – the people’s bank – for help.  You explain your case - going to be in deficit for a few years but by dint of hard work and better housekeeping, will then be back in the black.  The Credit Union says ‘fine, no problem, here’s the loan you need to tide you over – oh, by the way, a few reckless friends of yours borrowed a lot of money from some foolish friends of mine and now can’t pay it back; as a condition of the loan you need you're going to have to assume this debt as well, in full - oh, and I'm going to have to charge you additional interest on that because we need to make a few bob on it ourselves also’.

Your local Credit Union would do no such thing, by the way, but if they did, would you sign up to such a deal?  Our twin Brians did, last November.

Take the above scenario and multiply it a million-fold; as a nation we ran into hard times, spent 15 billion euro more than we earned in 2010, for example.  The financial markets were beginning to charge us penal interest rates for our borrowings so in came the IMF and ECB, our friendly European Community bank.  And the ECB demanded of our Brians that as a condition of getting the loan to carry the nation across these next few difficult years, we – the Irish people – would also have to assume the private debts accumulated by our banks to the bondholders, many of whom are friends of our ECB (political investigative blogger Guido Fawkes obtained a list of the Anglo Irish foreign bondholders: German banks, French banks, German investment funds, Goldman Sachs.)

It was a disastrous decision by the previous government, taken at a time when their mandate to govern had long run out, and it was a move vehemently opposed by the opposition of the day.  Two of the major parties of that opposition are now in government, but already they have accepted the principle of this debt, are squabbling now with the ECB only over the interest rate – useless, ‘like giving an aspirin to a heart-attack patient’ is how TCD economist Constantin Gurdgiev describes it.

This additional debt is a millstone around the neck of the Irish people, will surely sink us, force us into a national default.  If that happens, then the cuts we’ve seen to date will pale into insignificance – we’re looking at pensions slashed, social welfare payments slashed, public sector pay slashed.  Don’t believe it?  Check out what happened in Latvia, in Argentina.

We MUST protest what happened last November; as a first step to rehabilitation, the sovereign debt and that private bank/bondholder debt MUST be decoupled, and that private debt dealt with separately.  This Sunday again in Ballyhea, 11.45, gather in the church car-park after second Mass, ten-minute march to the speed-limit sign and back; wherever you're from, please join us, because this concerns you – it should concern us all.

THE PEOPLE'S PROTEST

Ballyhea

Charleville

Co. Cork

March 21st 2011

BALLYHEA SAYS NO! TO THE BONDHOLDER BAILOUT – DECOUPLE THE BONDHOLDER DEBT FROM THE SOVEREIGN DEBT NOW!

WE, the Irish people, are willing to pay in full our accumulating sovereign debt, a debt for which we  - whatever we may feel about how we’ve gotten to this situation - are collectively responsible.  We will NOT pay, as part of that sovereign debt, either in whole or in part, the private bank/bondholder debt, and we call on our government to decouple those two wholly different and separate debts NOW. 

The reason is simple.  To quote renowned American economist Michael Lewis, from a recent Vanity Fair article, ‘In retrospect, now that the Irish bank losses are known to be world-historically huge, the decision to cover them appears not merely odd but suicidal.  A handful of Irish bankers incurred debts they could never repay, of something like 100 billion euros.  They may have had no idea what they were doing, but they did it all the same.  Their debts were private—owed by them to investors around the world—and still the Irish people have undertaken to repay them as if they were obligations of the state.’  Wrong, Michael, we the Irish people have made no such undertaking, because we, the Irish people, have never been asked.

In that article, Michael also states: ‘These private bondholders didn’t have any right to be made whole by the Irish government.  The bondholders didn’t even expect to be made whole by the Irish government.  Not long ago I spoke with a former senior Merrill Lynch bond trader who, on September 29, 2008 (the night of our infamous blanket bank guarantee – DO’F), owned a pile of bonds in one of the Irish banks.  He’d already tried to sell them back to the bank for 50 cents on the dollar — that is, he’d offered to take a huge loss, just to get out of them.  On the morning of September 30 he awakened to find his bonds worth 100 cents on the dollar.  The Irish government had guaranteed them! He couldn’t believe his luck.  Across the financial markets this episode repeated itself.  People who had made a private bet that went bad, and didn’t expect to be repaid in full, were handed their money back—from the Irish taxpayer.’

Not any more.  ‘For two years they (that’s us, the Irish people – DO’F) have laboured under this impossible burden with scarcely a peep of protest,’ continues Michael.  Well, no more – time to shout STOP.  Bullied/brow-beaten/blackmailed by the ECB, a discredited and lame-duck government signed us up to this, their mandate long gone; despite pre-election promises to the contrary, our new government has agreed to both the principle and the principal (100%) of this newly-assumed loan, while dickering only over the penal interest rate – rearranging the deck-chairs as the good ship Ireland goes rapidly underwater.

Enough.  In Ballyhea, we are in our fourth week of protest; every Sunday, 11.45am (after second Mass), a short and silent march from the church carpark to the limit of the village and back.  No placards, no catchy slogan, as little disruption to life as possible, no destruction of property public or private; just, slow, simmering anger.  Our numbers are increasing by the week, and we call now on anyone who is of like mind to join us in our protest; we call on those who can’t make it to Ballyhea to organise their own protest, on the same weekly basis at the same time on the same day – 11.45am every Sunday – until such time as our new government hears our voices.  Enough, surely.

Regards,

Diarmuid O'Flynn.

THE THIRD MARCH

Ballyhea

Charleville

Co. Cork

To whom it concerns, and if you're Irish this concerns you:

The third protest march against the terms of the IMF/ECB agreement was held in Ballyhea today and again there was an increase in numbers over the previous week, nearly 70 of us on this occasion.  Not exactly the ‘million-man march’, granted, but in our little community here in rural north Cork it represents a significant turnout.  Even in that small number very element of our community was strongly represented – man, woman, child, from under nine months old to over 90, employed and unemployed, employer and employee, farmer, blue-collar worker, white-collar. 

Our grievance is simple – last November, a discredited government with about as much mandate as Colonel Ghadafi now enjoys in Libya, was bullied/brow-beaten/blackmailed by the ECB (we excuse the IMF on this) into accepting a bailout agreement which coupled private bank/bondholder debt with national sovereign debt, all of which we – the Irish people – are now expected to pay.

On so many levels, that ‘agreement’ was wrong; it was unjust, immoral, probably illegal - to be binding, isn't an agreement meant to be entered into freely, willingly, voluntarily?  According to Brian Lenihan subsequently, they were threatened with national bankruptcy if they didn’t agree to accept the private debt as a condition of the loan.  On a purely practical level, however, it was unsustainable – our sovereign debt we can manage but with this millstone added, we will surely sink.  The ECB knew this; they know also that when it happens, far from throwing us a life-line, they will be keeping us under, and our Corporate Tax rate, our level of pensions and social welfare payments that so annoy them, will all then be under their control.

In theory, we are members of a community, the EC – European Community.  Community suggests to me a place where the strong take care of the weak; well, the EC took care of us alright.  They gifted us this massive private loan, with interest, then with additional interest on top of that again.  ‘Moral hazard’ was the reason quoted, the danger that if they didn’t punish us for our national recklessness we’d just go off and do it all again.  Now, where we did hear that before?

When Lord Trevelyan allowed millions to die and/or emigrate in the late 1840s, ‘moral hazard’ was his reasoning – this was God visiting his displeasure on the reckless Irish, who had families too large and farms too small, and had become too dependent on the potato for life (there was no Famine, by the way, a misnomer always – this was genocide), and why would the British intervene?  Let the Irish learn their lesson.

Well, have we?  Let’s examine that ‘moral hazard’ as applied in the current circumstances.  Where I live, up here in the hills in Ballyhea, none of my neighbours to left or right – the Nunans, Brownes, O’Regans, O’Briens, Duanes, McCarthys, O’Keeffes, Lanes – bought a single investment property between them, either in Ireland or abroad; there are no massive gas-guzzling 4x4 monsters on our mountain roads, no-one spending over the last few years other than as they have spent forever – prudently, carefully.  There are those in this country who have been reckless in their individual spending, and they are now paying a price – no bailout for them.  There are also those who have bought houses, many of them first-time buyers who were panicked into buying by all the blaring advertising (‘Get on the property ladder NOW, next month prices will have gone up again!’) before they wanted to buy, and certainly for more than they ever wanted to pay.  They too are now caught; they may get relief, but they too WILL pay their debt, in full.

Now, look to the other side of this coin – from where did all this money come?  Why, from Europe, from the Middle East, the Far East, from the USA, from all the usual high-finance high-octane sources, those very exclusive arenas where odds are calculated and risks taken, bonuses counted in billions.  But where is the ‘moral hazard’ as applied to them?  If you pour oil on an already over-heating economy, do you not risk becoming engulfed in the flames yourself, when it all explodes?  I've been told here that blaming those who gave our banks the money is like blaming the bartender for your hangover, but in this instance the bartender kept feeding liquor to a crowd of arrogant yobs who were already well tanked, knowing full well they were then going to mount their massive 4x4s and cause carnage on the roads – that bartender you DO call to account.

So, our protest.  How any government could agree to terms that so enslaved their own people defies logic – the bailout here is of the bondholders, and no-one else.  Despite pre-election promises to the contrary our new government has agreed both in principle and principal (100%, no ‘haircut’) to the deal, arguing only over the interest rate – rearranging the deck-chairs as the good ship Ireland sinks beneath the waves.  Here in this little parish, we say no – enough. 

Our case is simple: the ‘agreement’ that was foisted on us, the Irish people, last November, is wrong.  We can use any additional descriptive adjective we like – shameful, unjust, unjustifiable, immoral, etc. etc. – but that is the one word above all others to describe it; it’s wrong.  The national debt - the money needed to run the country while we try to close the current deficit - is our debt, a debt we should pay, a debt we must pay; the private debt run up by our banks to the bond-holders, is NOT our debt.  That debt must be decoupled from the sovereign debt, must be treated separately, and that must be done now.

Our march is short, from the church car-park to the speed-limit sign on the outskirts of the village.  Disruption of traffic is kept to a minimum, no destruction of property private or public, all of which is counter-productive.  We have one sign, out front, which proclaims what we’re doing, but there are no banners, no sexy slogans, no chants – it’s short, it’s silent, but it is seething with a suppressed anger.  We’re a small parish, a small voice, and we’re still on our own, getting very little coverage over here.  But through this voice, an Irish voice calling home if you will, we ask now that other parishes, other villages, towns and cities, join us; we ask that more of our own families in our own parish join us.  As a returned exile, I know what it’s like to be thousands of miles from home, but in this modern age I know also how easy it is to stay in touch.  I ask ye now – get in touch with your own friends and relations at home, ask them to join us.  Ye might even start yere own protest over there, with the exiled Irish in yere own communities, and send that message back home.  After all, it affects us all, doesn’t it?

THE SECOND MARCH

Ballyhea

Charleville

Co. Cork

The second protest march against the terms of the IMF/ECB agreement was held in Ballyhea today and while the numbers were still small (around 45 of us), it represented a significant increase over the attendance at the first march, which was held last Sunday week.  Next Sunday, starting at 11.45pm (after second Mass), and every Sunday until such time as we get satisfaction, we will again be meeting in the church car-park, and we will again be marching in protest.  It’s a short march and deliberately so, from the car-park to the village speed-limit sign and back – we don’t want to impinge on people’s valuable time, nor unduly disrupt traffic through the village.  It is, however, nonetheless serious because of that.

Our case is simple: the ‘agreement’ that was foisted on us, the Irish people, last November, is wrong.  We can use any additional descriptive adjective we like – shameful, unjust, unjustifiable, immoral, etc. etc. – but that is the one word above all others to describe it; it’s wrong.  The national debt, the money needed to run the country while we try to close the current deficit, is our debt, a debt we should pay, a debt we must pay; the private debt run up by our banks to the bond-holders, is NOT our debt.  That debt must be decoupled from the sovereign debt, must be treated separately, and that must be done now.

We are members of the EC, the European Community, and ‘Community’ suggests a place where the strong look after the weak; some ‘community’ this is.  The exact opposite occurred, and our twin Brians were bullied/browbeaten/blackmailed into acceptance of this ‘agreement’.  Leave aside the fact that some of the most respected economists on this island have said that this extra debt is unsustainable, will break us within a couple of years - it’s wrong, plain wrong.
  

So, here we are in this small parish, with our small voices, in weekly protest.  As a parish we’re still on our own, and we’re also small enough in number, but we’re growing.  We ask now that other parishes, other villages, towns and cities, join us; we ask that more of our own families in our own parish join us.  Our previous government signed us up to this, our new government has accepted it, neither of them have asked us what WE thought.  Renegotiating the interest rate?  That’s simply rearranging the deck-chairs – we’ve got to change course, avoid this ice-berg.

Join us, say NO!  The final say in any democracy rests with the people - let your voice be heard, march.

Regards,

Diarmuid O'Flynn.