Real heroes

BLOG:                                      http://thechatteringmagpie14.blogspot.com/

ONLINE PETITION: http://www.petitiononline.com/isntbb11

TWITTER:         @ballyhea14

FACEBOOK PAGE:   Ballyhea bondholder bailout protest

June 6th 2011

BALLYHEA BONDHOLDER BAILOUT PROTEST – REAL SACRIFICE, REAL HEROES

In Dublin on Saturday last for the Christy Ring final in Croke Park (great win for Kerry, magnificent achievement by John Meyler and his management team but most of all by the players themselves – hurling on the ‘up’ from the Kingdom to the capital!), spent a few hours with my in-laws, Niall and Phil Henderson, in Willow Park Avenue in Ballymun.

Niall and Phil are in their 80s, have lived in Ballymun all of their 50+ married years.  You'll know their house immediately, the one with the immaculate front lawn that looks like it’s been cut with a scissors, edged year-round in a colour-fest of flower-beds.  Niall’s gardening efforts extend far beyond his own lawns, however, and for many years now he has been tending the community green in front of his house, flowers planted around every tree in the area, the beds kept weed-free.  On this day and as I was leaving, he was on his knees in front of one those trees, doing the needful.

Niall and Phil Henderson are the real heroes of this society, of any society.  Working all the hours God gave, in his job as a printer foreman with Fodhla Niall supported a family of four; Phil too would have worked outside the home but, through the rules of the day (seems incredible now, doesn’t it?), was forced to give up her Civil Service job when she got married.  She kept a good home, however, is still the rock of that family, and all four kids got a damned near perfect upbringing.

A generation behind them, in 1916 Niall’s father Frank, head of the Dublin Brigade of the IRA, was one of the men in the GPO with Pearse and the rest, was also a leading light in the War of Independence; Phil’s father, Denis Begley from Charleville, was a member of Michael Collins’ inner circle during that period, also played an active part in the fight; again, real heroes, who took very real risks with their lives.

We owe those people.  We owe those like Frank Henderson and Denis Begley who risked their lives – lost their lives in many instances – to establish this republic; we owe those like Phil and Niall who  worked so hard for so long for so little, to get this republic on its feet, and who are now wholly reliant on their pensions; we owe ourselves, our own generation, to ensure that at the very least we hold that which those previous generations fought and worked for; we owe our children, the next generation and the one after that again, to hand on this republic in at least as fine an order as that which was handed to us.

We must stand up NOW to the bully-boys of the ECB, we must tell them - no, no more of your decrees, no more of your crippling diktats, no longer will we honour bonds that we were never party to, that were agreements between private institutions.  We must reclaim our sovereignty.

March with us, every Sunday; demand that the deal of last November be rescinded; demand at the very least a referendum before another cent is paid out.  Two weeks ago Anglo Irish Bank – a decaying putrid corpse – paid out €200m to unsecured unguaranteed senior bondholders; according to a Central Bank table of March 2011, there is still €64.326bn to be paid, €7bn due this year, €20bn in 2012; to subsidise this kind of madness we have families with special-needs kids who are no longer eating properly, we have an education system being shorn week by week of those who teach the weakest, we have pensioners like Niall and Phil Henderson who are being hit with levies/charges/stealth taxes. 

For how much longer can you sit back and tolerate this?  We don’t have to risk bomb or bullet to protest, we just have to take to the streets.  It’s late in the game and much has already been lost, but it’s not too late.  Act now.  This Sunday and every Sunday in Ballyhea, 10.30am, a 10-minute march – join us, either in Ballyhea or better yet, in your own community.

Regards,

Diarmuid O'Flynn.

Run/walk/cycle to the Dáil day four

BLOG:                                      http://thechatteringmagpie14.blogspot.com/

ONLINE PETITION: http://www.petitiononline.com/isntbb11

TWITTER:         @ballyhea14

FACEBOOK PAGE:   Ballyhea bondholder bailout protest

June 3rd 2011

BALLYHEA BONDHOLDER BAILOUT PROTEST – RUN TO THE DÁIL day four

Well, we did it, marched down the main street of the final ‘town’ on our trip from Ballyhea to the Dáil, handed in our petition.  A small group of us, about ten from Ballyhea, another dozen or more from Dublin and surrounds; a small march and a small petition (perhaps 800 hand-written signatures that we collected at all the various villages and towns en-route, another 500+ from the online petition) but that isn't the point – it was done.

We met at noon at the Garden of Remembrance, brilliant sunshine all over the country on this Bank Holiday weekend.  The funeral of a very popular parishioner, Pakie Mortell (great Ballyhea-man all his days and I should have been there - may he laugh long with the gods), meant we lost several who would otherwise have been with us, and the fact that Ballyhea were playing in the first round of the Cork Premier Intermediate championship in the evening (lost to Newcestown, and I missed that too, laid up), further depleted the numbers from the home parish.  Still, we had a few - young and old, male and female - and we were joined by a stout group who had been following online our journey up through the country.

Set off down Parnell Square following the same format as for our regular weekly marches in Ballyhea (which, by the way, will continue this Sunday, 10.30am), our ‘BALLYHEA SAYS NO! TO BONDHOLDER BAILOUT’ signs front and back, the REPUDIATE THE DEBT group banner in the middle (we hooked up with them in Limerick, their protest very much along the same lines as ours), headed then down O'Connell Street to the bemusement of the throngs on the footpaths, across O'Connell Bridge, heading for College Green.  There we were joined by a double Garda presence, two motorbike cops.

‘Who’s in charge here?’, asked the lead cop;

‘Sure no-one,’ sez I, ‘we’re all together in it.’

‘Where’s Ballyhea?’, reading the sign;

‘A little parish in North Cork.’

‘Ye never notified us of this.’

‘Yerra we know nothing about stuff like that, we’ve never done anything like this before – we set off on foot four days ago in Ballyhea, we’ve marched down the main street of every town we met along the way, and we’re finishing off here now.’

‘Four days!  Sure we’ll have to let ye carry on so!’

And from there to the Dáil they guided us along, protected our rear, held up traffic up front to allow us proceed without hindrance.  At the entrance to Government Buildings met a smiling young Garda who politely informed us that only one of the group would be allowed inside to hand in the petition, and Frances O’Brien, an outstanding ever-present, did the honours on our behalf.

Odd, isn't it, that where we can march here with the protection of our police while those in places like Tunisia and Libya and Egypt risk being killed by theirs, we don’t bother.  I won’t pretend that it wasn’t all, ultimately, a huge disappointment.  Of course it was badly planned, badly organised, badly managed, and as chief planner, organiser and manager I take full responsibility for that, but the overall reaction was what really disappointed – a lot of anger out there, but not enough that people are ready to act.  Not yet anyway.

The temptation now is to wash my hands completely of this, but no, the original reason for starting this campaign is still there; it’s not whether or not we can afford to pay this massive private debt, it’s the fact that it’s there at all.  The thought that the ECB might get away with this obscenity, that parents of special-needs kids suffer cuts so that some of the biggest banks in the world can be paid billions they had lost in a bad investment, that really grates.  There is no deduction in your wage slip or your bank statement that states ‘Bondholder subsidy’, but believe me, you're paying it, and you'll pay more.  Under the terms of the ECB decree of last November (let’s net even pretend it was any kind of ‘deal’, and the only people bailed out were the bondholders), profitable state assets will HAVE to be sold, more cuts will HAVE to be made, more taxes/levies/stealth taxes will HAVE to be imposed, to meet our mounting debt, a huge chunk of which goes to the bondholders.

We’ve already paid out about €70bn; according to a March 2011 Central Bank report as quoted by respected blogger namawinelake, (given great credit recently by Professor Morgan Kelly in his scathing article in The Irish Times), there is a lot more still outstanding -‘some €7bn of the €73bn (remaining bondholder debt) falls due in 2011, €20bn in 2012, €17bn in 2013 and €29bn in 2014 onwards.’ Are those sums not worth fighting for?  (For the full article, hit this link: http://namawinelake.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/when-are-bondholders-in-irish-banks-due-to-be-paid/)

When did it become acceptable for banks – even a bank as powerful as the ECB - to dictate to sovereign governments?  I'm not into stocks and bonds, have neither the money for it nor the inclination, but I do know that in that cut-throat market one of the immutable laws was that when you made a bad investment (and it’s inevitable that you will), you cut your losses and moved on.  That was until the ECB decided that in the case of the Irish banks and their bondholders, the Irish people should instead cover all losing bets, paying not just the original bonds with the original interest that was supposed to accrue, paying not just in addition the interest at which the ECB was borrowing the money to loan to us to pay those bonds (stay with me!), but paying also an additional three percent.  I ask anyone – please justify this for me. 

The very weakest in our society, those most vulnerable, have been hit hard in the last couple of years to subsidise these billionaire banks – someone please justify that.  Even the IMF, dammit, would like to see those bondholders take a short-back-and-sides; and still the ECB dictate.

All over the world the same thing is happening, banks and major financial institutions being bailed out to the tune of billions by the people; it has to stop, someone, somewhere, has to take a stand.  Well, that’s us, that’s the Ballyhea Bondholder Bailout Protest.  We gave it a run this week and we met the wall – oh, so many walls, not least the wall of silence from our national media.  But we will persist.  As noted above, this Sunday again - our 14^th protest - we march in Ballyhea, 10.30am.  We are peaceful, non-party, non-professional when it comes to this sort of stuff, but we will keep going.  This is not about making people take notice of Ballyhea, it’s about making people wake up to what’s been done to them and to their own potential to stop it.

‘Whatever you do, do nothing,’ that was a common theme we met on our journey of the last week, as in ‘sure why would you bother protesting, there’s nothing we can do about it’.  ‘Whatever you do, do SOMETHING!’, that’s our approach.

Charleville, Banogue, Croom, Patrickswell, Limerick, Birdhill, Nenagh, Toomevara, Moneygall, Roscrea, Borris-in-Ossory, Mountrath, Portlaoise, Monasterevin, Kildare, Newbridge, Naas, Dublin, whether you know it or not this week you've all had your first protest march; to ye, to every other town in the country, we say – get up, get marching, every Sunday at the same time down your main drag, 15 minutes or thereabouts.  Get these blood-suckers out of our system and with the quality of the next generation, their confidence, their education, their native intelligence, this country will soar.

Regards,

Diarmuid O'Flynn.

Run/walk/cycle to the Dáil day three - 2nd update

BLOG:                                      http://thechatteringmagpie14.blogspot.com/

ONLINE PETITION: http://www.petitiononline.com/isntbb11

TWITTER:         @ballyhea14

FACEBOOK PAGE:   Ballyhea bondholder bailout protest

June 2nd 2011

BALLYHEA BONDHOLDER BAILOUT PROTEST – RUN TO THE DÁIL day three

Alright, alright – what happened to day two?  For any of you who didn’t get the earlier posts, spent yesterday ‘hors de combat’, the body having seized up from the effort of day one.  Still pretty battered today but the others from the Ballyhea Bondholder Bailout Protest have stepped in; a relay bike ride, started in Nenagh at 10am this morning, and already we’re in Portlaoise.

Young Frank McNamara took us out, a veritable machine on wheels, went as far as Roscrea, then Mikey O'Sullivan, a veteran of the 1976 county junior winning team, took over and if anything upped the pace, so that by the time Noel Hanley got in the saddle in Mountrath we were way ahead of schedule.  That’s where we are now, Noel and his brother Christy (two men you did NOT want to meet on the hurling field) are going on ahead while I have dropped back to Nenagh to let student Frank head home to complete a project, and pick up four more students, including my own two kids; they will complete the last miles into Dublin.

One thing we’re learning on this crusade to Dublin – how badly the crisis is affecting life in Irish towns.  Lifeless, many of them, barely a sinner to sign our petitions.  ‘I hope the crows here can write,’ said Noel Hanley pointing to the circling flock as we pulled up in Toomevara, ‘or we’re not going to get a single signature!’  We got a few, then headed for Moneygall.

Early and all as it was in the morning – before noon, and thus well before any of us would normally indulge - we had planned on having a pint of Guinness in the pub in which Barack Obama was pictured quaffing a full measure of the black stuff.  The welcome for the US President didn’t extend to the protesting Ballyhea boys, however.  We set up our little petition table and sign outside the pub (not going to name it – might only be my mother and sister reading this but no publicity here for this guy) and took a picture, then – still not a sinner in sight – I set off across the road to try and get a few signatures in the souvenir shop.  Managed it too, lovely lady behind the counter, but while I was in there the three lads were met by a guy who came out from the pub and told them, in no uncertain terms, to move the table from in front of the pub.  They explained what we were about, and that we’d be gone in a few minutes – begone now, they were told, moves made on the table.  Our protest is about galvanising people behind us, not about confrontation, so up we packed, moved on, and no pints either!

Mountrath was the best, great reaction, and finally, someone who would march with us; Joe Carroll from the village, along with a guy passing through some of ye might have heard of – Martin Comerford, multiple All-Ireland winner with Kilkenny.

On from there to Portlaoise, and that’s where I left the Hanley brothers.  Update again this evening.

Well, dropped Frank back to Nenagh, picked up the next team, four youngsters; Niall and Sadhbh ye’ll have come across already, my son and daughter, along with a neighbour’s child, Eoin Coleman, and their friend Aidan Murnane, from Cork city.  Headed back for Monasterevin (or Monster Heaven as my kids always thought it was called back in the early 90s, when it was on the route down from Dublin) and met up with the lads, who seemed to be entertaining half of the town.  Had a good number of signatures at this stage, running out of pre-printed and lined sheets, had to revert to using the back of those sheets.

The handing over of the ‘torch’ took place (our little ‘Run/walk/cycle/crawl to the Dáil’ sign) from one generation to the next, and Sadhbh took off, headed for Kildare.  Made it in double-quick time too, and we were getting a fine reception, for the most part.  Difficult to find a single busy spot in the main street of these towns, much of the business now syphoned off to the likes of Tesco and so on, on the periphery.

On to Newbridge next, mighty Aidan in the saddle, and God, what a contrast to everywhere else we met.  Didn’t get the kind of outright abuse we got in Moneygall, but oh, this went beyond apathy – this was a comfort zone, and very much so.  Did manage to get a lot of signatures, but even the local people said to us – a lot of wealthy people around that town, not hurting yet with anything that’s happening.  The lads just wanted out of there, found the lack of support extremely disappointing, but we did our march anyway, dammit.

On then to Naas, Aidan still powering along (Frank’s bike all the way, by the way, and now they all want one!), going so well in fact that a brief stop by us for an ice-cream left us so far behind that we caught him only just before Naas.

At this stage it was well after six (the trip back to Nenagh had really held things up, car breakdown preventing the four younger brigade from travelling up to Portlaoise themselves, so they were ferried to Nenagh by Gavin Morrissey, a Ballyhea contemporary, where I picked them up), so numbers on the street were down, but we still picked up a few more signatures, a lot more support.  Did our final march (Rathcoole wasn’t actually en-route, we just stayed on the dual-carriageway), Eoin gone ahead already on the bike, and off we went.  Halfway to Dublin Niall took over, and brought us home, a slight glitch at the end when we were waiting for him at O'Connell Bridge and he was waiting for us at the Spire, him without a phone.  Spent over half-an-hour on that confusion before eventually Eoin took a ramble up O'Connell Street to see if maybe he had headed for the Garden of Remembrance, met him at the Spire.  Sadhbh, Eoin and Aidan headed for her Granny & Pop’s place in Ballymun, Niall and myself headed the chariot for home, Frank’s bike in the back.  Got back after midnight, now after 2am, headed back up again tomorrow morning for our noon march to the Dáil.

An illuminating day, not at all what had been planned originally but that old saying comes to mind – if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.  Wasn’t just the gods who had a laugh on this one though I reckon, but doesn’t bother me – good or bad I set my own standards for myself, didn’t meet them on this occasion but it wasn’t for lack of effort.  I’ll take that.

Most overriding lesson learned from the three days?  Yes, a lot of people support our protest, yes, a lot of people are angry, but no, not angry enough to act.  Not yet.

Have a few pics to put up, but not tonight – a cover-letter to do now, for this great petition handover.

DAY 1 – TUESDAY MAY 31^st

START  FROM – TO                   DISTANCE (m) ARRIVAL

07.00  Ballyhea/Charleville            5.5            08.00

08.15  Charleville/Banogue             8.8            09.45

10.00  Banogue/Croom                   3.1            10.30

10.45  Croom/Patrickswell              6.7            12.00

12.15  Patrickswell/Limerick           6.6            13.30

14.00  Limerick/Birdhill               12.3           16.00

16.15  Birdhill/Nenagh                 12.5           18.15

                                       55.5               

DAY 2 – WEDNESDAY JUNE 1^st

08.00  Nenagh/Toomevara                7.3            09.30

09.45  Toomevara/Moneygall             4.1            10.30

10.45  Moneygall/Dunkerrin             3.2            11.30

11.45  Dunkerrin/Roscrea               5.5            12.45

13.00  Roscrea/Borris-in-Ossory        7.4            14.30

14.45  Borris-in-Ossory/Mountrath      8.5            16.15

16.30  Mountrath/Portlaoise            8.4            18.00

                                       43.5               

DAY 3 – THURSDAY JUNE 2^nd

08.00  Portlaoise/Ballybrittas         9.0            09.30

09.45  Ballybrittas/Monasterevin       3.9            10.30

10.45  Monasterevin/Kildare            6.6            12.00

12.30  Kildare/Newbridge               5.6            13.30

13.45  Newbridge/Naas                  6.7            15.00

15.15  Naas/Rathcoole                  10.4           17.15

17.30  Rathcoole/Dublin                10.3           19.16

                                       52.5               

DAY 4 – FRIDAY JUNE 3^rd

12.00  Parnell Square/Kildare Street   1.3            13.00

                                       152.8 miles total  

Regards,

Diarmuid O'Flynn.

Run/walk/cycle to the Dáil day three

BLOG:                                      http://thechatteringmagpie14.blogspot.com/

ONLINE PETITION: http://www.petitiononline.com/isntbb11

TWITTER:         @ballyhea14

FACEBOOK PAGE:   Ballyhea bondholder bailout protest

June 2nd 2011

BALLYHEA BONDHOLDER BAILOUT PROTEST – RUN TO THE DÁIL day three

Alright, alright – what happened to day two?  For any of you who didn’t get the earlier posts, spent yesterday ‘hors de combat’, the body having seized up from the effort of day one.  Still pretty battered today, but the others from the Ballyhea Bondholder Bailout Protest have stepped in; a relay bike ride, started in Nenagh at 10am this morning, and already we’re in Portlaoise.

Young Frank McNamara took us out, a veritable machine on wheels, went as far as Roscrea, then a veteran of the 1976 county junior winning team, Mikey O'Sullivan took over and if anything upped the pace, so that by the time Noel Hanley got in the saddle in Mountrath we were way ahead of schedule.  That’s where we’re at now, Noel and his brother Christy (two men you did NOT want to meet on the hurling field) are going on ahead while I have dropped back to Nenagh to let student Frank head home to complete a project, and pick up four more students, including my own two kids; they will complete the last miles into Dublin.

One thing we’re learning on this crusade to Dublin – how badly the crisis is affecting life in Irish towns.  Lifeless, many of them, barely a sinner to sign our petitions.  ‘I hope the crows here can write,’ said Noel Hanley pointing to the circling flock as we pulled up in Toomevara, ‘or we’re not going to get a single signature!’  We got a few, then headed for Moneygall.

Early and all as it was in the morning – well before noon, and thus well before any of us would normally indulge - we had planned on having a pint of Guinness in the pub in which Barack Obama was pictured quaffing a full measure of the black stuff.  If there was a welcome for the US President, however, it didn’t extend to the protesting Ballyhea boys.  We set up our little petition table and sign outside the pub (not going to name it – might only be my mother and sister reading this but no publicity here for this guy) and took a picture, then – still not a sinner in sight – I set off across the road to try and get a few signatures in the souvenir shop.  Managed it too, lovely lady behind the counter, but while I was in there the three lads were met by a guy who came out from the pub and told them, in no uncertain terms, to move the table from in front of the pub.  They explained what we were about, and that we’d be gone in a few minutes – begone now, we were told, moves made on the table.  Our protest is about galvanising people behind us, not about confrontation, so up we packed, moved on, and no pints either!

Mountrath was the best, great reaction, and finally, someone who would march with us, Joe Carroll from the village, along with a guy passing through some of ye might have heard of – Martin Comerford, multiple All-Ireland winner with Kilkenny.

On from there to Portlaoise, and that’s where I left the Hanley brothers.  Update again this evening.

DAY 1 – TUESDAY MAY 31^st

START  FROM – TO                   DISTANCE (m) ARRIVAL

07.00  Ballyhea/Charleville            5.5            08.00

08.15  Charleville/Banogue             8.8            09.45

10.00  Banogue/Croom                   3.1            10.30

10.45  Croom/Patrickswell              6.7            12.00

12.15  Patrickswell/Limerick           6.6            13.30

14.00  Limerick/Birdhill               12.3           16.00

16.15  Birdhill/Nenagh                 12.5           18.15

                                       55.5               

DAY 2 – WEDNESDAY JUNE 1^st

08.00  Nenagh/Toomevara                7.3            09.30

09.45  Toomevara/Moneygall             4.1            10.30

10.45  Moneygall/Dunkerrin             3.2            11.30

11.45  Dunkerrin/Roscrea               5.5            12.45

13.00  Roscrea/Borris-in-Ossory        7.4            14.30

14.45  Borris-in-Ossory/Mountrath      8.5            16.15

16.30  Mountrath/Portlaoise            8.4            18.00

                                       43.5               

DAY 3 – THURSDAY JUNE 2^nd

08.00  Portlaoise/Ballybrittas         9.0            09.30

09.45  Ballybrittas/Monasterevin       3.9            10.30

10.45  Monasterevin/Kildare            6.6            12.00

12.30  Kildare/Newbridge               5.6            13.30

13.45  Newbridge/Naas                  6.7            15.00

15.15  Naas/Rathcoole                  10.4           17.15

17.30  Rathcoole/Dublin                10.3           19.16

                                       52.5               

DAY 4 – FRIDAY JUNE 3^rd

12.00  Parnell Square/Kildare Street   1.3            13.00

                                       152.8 miles total  

Regards,

Diarmuid O'Flynn.