Ballyhea
Charleville
Co. Cork
Aug 2nd 2012
Ref: WEEK 75 BALLYHEA/CHARLEVILLE
BANK BONDHOLDER BAILOUT PROTEST MARCH
Dear Sir/Madam;
It began on March 6th
2011, the weekend after the General Election when Fine Gael leader and
prospective Taoiseach Enda Kenny indicated, even before he had formed a government, that
he would be going back on his pre-election promise of burden-sharing with the
bondholders; 75 weeks later it’s still going strong.
Ballyhea is a rural parish in
north Cork on the main Cork/Limerick road, has a population of around 1,000
souls, Charleville the nearest town, has a population of around 3,500. Sixteen
weeks into our protest a group from Charleville followed our example and began
marching in the town; several weeks after that we joined forces and since then
we’ve alternated the march between the two centres, every second Sunday in each
place. This week it’s the turn of Charleville, gathering at the Library Plaza
at 11.30am.
We will be joined this week by
well-known economist Dr Constantin Gurdgiev (his third march) and by highly
respected Independent Wicklow TD Stephen Donnelly (his first outing), along
with several other high-profile individuals. After the march, which lasts for only
about 15 minutes, Constantin and Stephen will host a discussion at the Park
Hotel, on the outskirts of the town.
With the recent statement from
the Leaders’ Summit, ‘We affirm that it is imperative to break the
vicious circle between banks and sovereigns’, the EU has admitted that its policy of the past few years as forced
on Ireland, the conversion of private bank debt to sovereign debt, was wrong, has
to be changed. In Ballyhea/Charleville,
we’ve been protesting that wrong for 75 weeks.
This admission by the EU is
welcome, very welcome. However – and this point is critical – it doesn’t right the wrong, it merely acknowledges it. We can’t undo the massive damage done to
the Irish economy and to Ireland’s reputation as a result of the EU/ECB policy over
the past few years; we must do our damnedest, however, to get back the billions
we were blackmailed into pumping into
our failed banks to enable them to pay the failed bonds (a practice, by the
way, that continues unabated - €19bn in bonds from Irish banks this year alone).
So we march, 75 weeks now.
It’s not Olympic-standard endurance but we are in search of gold, our gold, and
until we see this wrong righted, until we see action as opposed to rhetoric, we’ll
continue to march. We invite anyone in the area to please join with us this
Sunday. This is not just Ballyhea’s fight, nor just Charleville’s fight – it’s
YOUR fight, it’s everyone’s fight, right across Europe.
Regards, Diarmuid O'Flynn.
