PADDY NUNAN - QUIET HERO

Many times during the last 222 weeks, since we began the Ballyhea bank-debt repudiation campaign, from inside and outside the country we have heard the Irish people denigrated, described as sheeple, as a cowed and beaten race. Always, it has annoyed me.

If I have any touchstone for Irishness it’s the Nunans and the Ryans, two families with whom my own was hugely intertwined during our formative years in Ballyhea, from childhood, through teens, to adulthood.

I think especially of the Nunans, whose farm adjoined our little quarter-acre plot, and by whom and with whom we were largely raised.

A SAFE HAVEN

To use the euphemism of the day, ours was a ‘troubled’ home (my mother eventually left, aided in her escape by the three oldest of us, in a family of ten) and Nunans, well, that was our safe haven, a house of hard work and hard workers, yes, but also a house of harmony and gentleness and laughter and love. Unspoken love, as was (and remains, unfortunately) the way in so many Irish homes, but a deep love nevertheless.

There was also a strength about the Nunans, physically, mentally and emotionally, and that too was deep and understated.

David Nunan was the patriarch, in a true union with the woman we always knew only as ‘Mrs Nunan’ (Alice Dillon her maiden name), a partnership which, over the decades, saw the 30 acres they got from the Land Commission parlayed into a farm of over 60 acres through fields claimed from the mountain (ah, picking stones!), through acquisition also of adjoining land.

David had come to Ballyhea from nearby Liscarroll, and it’s there this story starts.

A ‘SAFE HOUSE’

During the War of Independence the Nunan home, at the end of a long passage and well off the road, was what was known as a ‘safe house’, a place where IRA activists (including some of David’s older brothers, he being just a child at the time) could hide out when on the run.

One evening a couple of lorry-loads of Black-and-Tans came trundling up their long passage in search of one of the most prominent of those activists, Paddy O’Brien, a cousin of the Nunans. Failing to find Paddy, they turned instead on David’s older brother Paddy, then 19, took him outside, and shot him. 13 times. According to contemporary written testimony from his father, he was first to reach Paddy after the Tans had left, asked him if he was badly hurt, to which – he swore – Paddy replied “’Tis nothing, give me a mouthful of water.” Stoic? Courageous? You could say that.

COURAGE IN THE FACE OF DEATH

Fearing his son was near death Paddy’s father immediately called for both doctor and priest but despite all his wounds, Paddy survived, lived to the age of 73. A miracle? Yes, of sorts, and decades later he was still able to show us the scars from the exit wounds, though some of the bullets remained lodged in his body.

There was no massive fanfare at Paddy’s funeral, no 21-gun salute, yet it was Paddy Nunan, and families like his, who helped sustain that War of Independence, whose sacrifices enabled those who were doing the fighting to keep going.

PADDY NUNAN – SAME NAME, SAME COURAGE

David Nunan’s oldest son was also called Paddy, after both his uncle and his grandfather. This week, we buried Paddy and again, there was no massive fanfare but again, we buried a hero, a quiet hero.

For the last 25 years, while working his small hill farm and doing shift-work in the Kerrygold factory in Charleville, Paddy cared for his wife Margaret. He did so with a smile on his face, willingly, lovingly, ably. Late last year however he could no longer manage and very reluctantly, he allowed Margaret be taken from him and into a Nursing Home.

What we didn’t know, however, what Paddy himself didn’t know, was that he too was ill. On St Stephen’s Day last year, December 26^th, he was finally persuaded to go to Cork University Hospital for tests. Motor Neurone disease. Not just a death sentence, a truly horrific death sentence.

He bore it with true strength, a strength of which most of us can only dream. In those final months, and just as he had done for his wife all those years, Paddy was supported and cared for by his own family, by his sons David (who moved back into the family home) and Micheál (who came back from France for his final days), by his daughter Helen and her husband Antonio; also by his sisters Ellen and Mary and their husbands Pat and Ray, who lived nearby, and by his brother Davy and Davy's wife Mary.

Paddy and Margaret with (left to right) David, Helen, Micheál

THE WELL RUNS DEEP

Paddy Nunan never marched with us on the Ballyhea Says No campaign. He couldn’t, because his Sunday mornings were tied up. But he was with us in spirit, gave me words of encouragement (and were they needed!) every time I met him at Ballyhea shop. His sons and daughter march with us, his brother and sister march with us, and even their young kids likewise – the Nunan connection has been there from the first week.

Likewise the Ryan connection, and so many other families like the Nunans and the Ryans in the weeks between that first march, back on March 6^th 2011, and this Sunday’s march in Ballyhea, week 222. Some are ever-presents, some dip in and out, some can simply no longer afford the time, and some have – understandably – simply lost hope.

I haven’t.

THE SPIRIT OF A NATION

The heart and soul of this country, generation after generation, is represented by people like Paddy Nunan. The likes of Enda Kenny, Michael Noonan and Joan Burton of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition, the likes of Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fáil before them, can sell off for a song national assets like Aer Lingus, like Irish Water, like our gas and mineral reserves; guys like Denis O’Brien can wheel and deal and revel in their millions and billions, use them to spin and dictate as they will. But the Kennys and Noonans of this world can never sell that heart or steal that soul, the O’Briens of this world can never have it. Why? Because it’s not theirs to buy, to sell or even to steal.

HISTORY REPEATS

We will win this war. I believe in the Irish people, the old Irish people from the traditional families, the new Irish people who have embraced us and made this country their home. I believe in their strength, in their goodness, in their courage. We see it in people like Catherine Murphy in the last few weeks as she disdains all threats in her efforts to shine a light on a lot of shady happenings over the past decade and more – a true representative of the people. But we see it also in the growing numbers who are facing down this government on issues like the water charges, on the silencing of an already largely subjugated media by powerful interests.

A century ago, just below the surface, an eruption was brewing. History does repeat and now, we are again on the cusp. 

We are strong, stronger than most of us realise, stronger than most of THEM realise. We must act.

There is no longer even a pretence of democracy in this country; there is only dictatorship, legislation being rammed through the Dáil and rammed down the throats of the people, while a cowed and captured media sits silently by.

The people, though, are rising.

Tomorrow, Sunday May 31^st, Ballyhea church car-park at 10.30am, week 222 of our campaign and as it was for the last four years plus, the spirit of Paddy Nunan will be with us. You're welcome to join us.

QUANTITATIVE SQUEEZING

QUANTITATIVE EASING (QE): the system whereby a central bank creates money to stimulate growth in its economy  - the media were full of it lately with the news that the ECB has just embarked on a 19-month €60bn/month €1.14tn cash-creating binge.

QUANTITATIVE SQUEEZING (QS - a term coined by MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, for whom I now work in Brussels): a system whereby a central bank destroys money, again involving the ECB but this one you won't read about in our media. 

Even as the printing presses start rolling in the new €1.25bn HQ of the ECB in Frankfurt, creating those QE billions every month, in Ireland the same ECB ordains that we must do precisely the opposite – every year for the next 17 years, up to and including 2032, we will be burning hundreds of millions of euro. Okay, this is all figuratively speaking of course; nowadays currency is created with the push of a computer button, exists mostly in cyberspace; the debt created is all too real, however.

TO RECAP

In 2010, in collusion with the ECB and the then Irish Government, to bail out the failed creditors of two failed banks (Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide, which subsequently became the infamous IRBC), the Central Bank of Ireland printed €31bn – that was more than our entire take from income tax, Corporation Tax and Capital Gains tax for that year.

It was also very much in line with the ECB policy of the day which held that no bank in the Eurozone would be allowed fail (and even at that stage, in the third year of the crisis, that was all the ECB had, a policy – still no structures in place to deal with failed banks).

This wasn't done to save those banks, which were neither solvent nor nationally systemic and which have both since been wound up (Feb 2013). It was done to prevent contagion, a domino effect across the eurozone had those two banks been allowed to fail, leading to a feared subsequent failure of the euro itself.

It was an understandable fear, an understandable measure in the circumstances even if it did mean the ECB turning a blind eye to its own rule on the use of the ELA fund (Emergency Liquidity Assistance – the clue is in the word 'liquidity'!) exclusively for solvent banks.

The measure had the desired effect, bought time for the euro and for the ECB to eventually come up with a more permanent solution, which it did with the 'whatever it takes' announcement in 2012 by new President Mario Draghi.

STING IN THE TAIL

For Ireland however the good news would end there. While publicly clapping us on the back, praising us for all we've done in the last several years, privately the ECB has been insisting that because those two banks weren't themselves able to make good on the €31bn that was given to them (a fact of which the ECB was well aware back in 2010 when it allowed those billions be created and given to those two insolvent banks), Ireland, through its Central Bank, must now destroy the entire €31bn.

And so we have the ludicrous situation whereby on the one hand the ECB is creating billions by the day, ostensibly to kick-start the EU economy, on the other it is demanding that one of the smallest, most heavily indebted (government + household + SME) and most fragile of those economies, Ireland, must destroy billions; billions we must of course borrow.

A LIVE ISSUE

Our government and our media would have us all believe that any talk of relieving the bank-debt burden is moot, that it's all a done deal – 'Move along now, nothing to see here!'

It's not. In fact, far from being a 'done deal', the process of destroying those billions – Quantitative Squeezing – is still in the early stages.

In 2011, in almost its first act after winning election, this government borrowed and destroyed €3.1bn;

In 2012, to cover the €3.1bn due to be destroyed that year, the government issued a bond, which was actually for €3.5bn (they only got 88c in the €) – last year the Central Bank sold a €500m tranche of that bond, every cent of which was then destroyed, which means they still hold €3bn from that bond;

In 2013 IBRC was finally wound up and the remaining €25bn worth of Promissory Notes was 'bought out' and the debt converted to sovereign bonds.

All those bonds must now be sold and the money thus raised – again, every cent of every billion – must be destroyed. 


HOW IT WORKS
Taking advantage of the low interest currently available, over the past couple of years the NTMA (National Treasury Management Agency) has issued sovereign bonds and built up a stash of billions of euro - smart thinking. 

What happens next, however, isn't so smart. Using those borrowed billions the NTMA purchases the Promissory Note bonds from the Central Bank, €500m at a time. That Promissory Note bond is then cancelled - in other words the ECB, ounce by ounce, is getting its pound of flesh, the debt to them is being cancelled. This is the element that gets a bit of coverage in our national media. 

What is NOT covered is what also happens, indeed what the entire exercise is about - the Central Bank then takes that €500m and destroys it.

This is not notional money being destroyed, it's real money already borrowed by the NTMA, real money on which we'll be paying real interest, real money that will have to be repaid when those NTMA bonds mature.

The final cost between interest and principal, when the additional €3bn remaining from the 2012 bond is factored in? We won't have much change from €80bn, an average of €2bn/yr.

QUANTITATIVE SQUEEZING SCHEDULE

YEAR                                     BOND VALUE                                     TOTAL

2014/15/16/17/18                   €500m/yr                                              €2.5bn

2019/20/21/22/23                   €1,000m/yr                                           €5.0bn

2024/25/26/27/28/29/30/31    €2,000m/yr                                           €16.0bn

2032                                       €1,500m                                                €1.5bn

                                               SUB-TOTAL:                                        €25bn

                                               Remaining 2012 bond                           €3bn

                                               AMOUNT SOLD/DESTROYED       €28bn

BALLYHEA SAYS NO

Since Mar 6^th 2011 – more than four years – this particular injustice is part of what we in the Ballyhea Says No To Bondholder Bailout campaign have been marching against, Sunday after Sunday for 217 weeks (and counting). End the sale of those bonds now, let the ECB assume full responsibility for them, and you lift that massive burden from the shoulders of several generations of Irish people; allow the Central Bank of Ireland recreate the €4.1bn that has already been destroyed (which would now be in line anyway with the new 'creative' thinking of the ECB) and you give a massive boost to the current generation.

Given the massive QE the ECB is now engaged in it's an obscenity that one country, Ireland, should simultaneously be compelled to destroy billions. For the sake of future generations, it is time, surely, to take a stand.

BALLYHEA SAYS NO 4th ANNIVERSARY: MARCH 1st 2015

First post for a while on this blog but it's been a hectic few months on a number of fronts, not least the very welcome distractions of the massive Anti-Water-Charge campaign, and the victory of Syriza in the Greek elections.

On a personal level, I've changed occupations, am no longer with the Irish Examiner but now, as an Accredited Parliamentary Assistant to Luke 'Ming' Flanagan in the European Parliament, work full-time on the bank-debt issue while also paying close attention to TTIP, FTT and a few other issues.

TTIP

TTIP is a proposed treaty euphemistically titled Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership that would have devastating consequences for working conditions, for food safety, for environmental standards, not to mention the huge potential for job losses across Europe as the race to the bottom continues.

FTT 

FTT is the proposed Financial Transaction Tax, a relatively tiny tax on only the most toxic dealings in the various financial services centres. It has the potential to raise tens of billions annually and so far 11 EU countries have signed up – Ireland, with Minister Noonan protecting the interests of the IFSC at the cost of the people, has not.

FISHING

Another priority here is having Ireland's net contribution (sorry!) to the EU central funds adjusted to reflect the value of the fish taken from our waters.

There are other issues but above all is the bank-debt.

BALLYHEA SAYS KNOW

On March 6th 2011 a few of us first took to the road in Ballyhea (there is no street, as such, just the main Cork/Limerick road). Every week since then - and joined by Charleville a few months later - we've marched.

The originals - Niall O'Flynn also marched, took this picture

Sunday March 1^st we will be entering our fifth year of continuous weekly protest. As with all previous anniversary dates this will not be a celebration. It is, however, a significant day and we would like to mark it as such.

During those last four years we have consistently stated:

• The bank debt is odious debt, should have been repudiated; this week Ashoka Mody, former mission chief of the IMF delegation element of the Troika to Ireland, was on national radio and stated, unequivocally – 'There was a burden of debt that could legitimately be declared as an odious debt.' 
• The new FG/Lab coalition government was in a very strong position after their huge mandate of 2011, should have confronted the EU and its various institutions on that bank debt, should have confronted the ECB especially on the €31bn of Promissory Notes, the most odious element of all the bank-debt; in that same radio interview, the same Ashoka Mody confirmed this view, stated – 'Ireland had its opportunity. They came in on a mandate very similar to the current government of Greece, they came in on a promise to do similar things. But as had become customary in Europe – including in Greece (under the old governments) – from the moment the new government was formed it felt an obligation to 'grow up' and 'growing up' in European terminology meant doing what Berlin and Brussels think is the right thing to do.  Ireland fell in with that culture. Ireland had its opportunity, not just for itself but for Europe; in accepting the premise that Brussels and Berlin determine economic policy in every country, Ireland perpetuated a culture that this current Greek government is trying to break.'

Ministers Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin were both fast out of the box to attack Mr Mody's assertions and both used the same line – why didn't the IMF representative take that line at the time? The answer of course is simple – just as Yanis Varoufakis and his team are doing now on behalf of Greece and its people, it was YOUR job, Mr Noonan, you and your team, to negotiate as hard as was possible for Ireland and YOUR people. Mr Mody – in case it may have slipped your memory – was on the other side of that table. To use a sporting analogy, it would be like Paul O'Connell stating after last week's win that France hadn't maximized their opportunities and French coach Philippe Saint-André complaining that Paul shouldn't have played as hard as he did.

THE PROPAGANDA

Our own media has largely ignored our protest and for those four years most  have indulged in government spin – 'This was the best that could have been achieved, Kenny/Noonan/Gilmore etc did a fine job in difficult circumstances, the bank-debt is a dead issue, it's all done and dusted, Ireland has shown the rest of Europe the way ahead and sure aren't we all grand now again.'

Nonsense, all of it. The 'achievements' of which this government most often likes to boast were all won by others or are due to external circumstances. 

• The 'burning' of junior bondholders was already well in train from the previous regime;
• The reduction in interest rate was on the back of the second Greek deal which had NOTHING to do with Ireland or its negotiators, when even the hawks of the EU/ECB could no longer justify the massive profit it was making from the misery of both Greece and Ireland;
• The current low interest rates are because of the statement in late 2012 by ECB President Mario Draghi that he would do 'whatever it takes' to backstop the euro, reinforced by the recent announcement of at least €1.1tn of a Quantitative Easing programme;
• A huge chunk of the reduction in unemployment numbers – apart altogether from the massaging of the numbers with those in government schemes and in part-time/low-grade employment – is due to emigration, the hundreds of thousands who have been forced out of Ireland;
• Ah, there's more,so much more, enough to fill pages, but ye get the drift.

THE DAWNING

There is though a growing awareness within the media, within the people generally, that we've all been hoodwinked. Even within the government's own ranks, on the Promissory Note bonds now being held by the Central Bank, one TD – Labour's Dominic Hannigan – came out a couple of weeks ago on the Vincent Browne show on TV3 (one of the media heroes of this period) and suggested that rather than selling them into the markets, the Central Bank should hold onto the bonds til they mature, or that perhaps the ECB could just take them over and assume that debt for themselves, thus saving future generations up to €80bn of debt.

Apologies for the long-winded post but the reason for it is this – I want people to see that it is NOT too late, that in fact it is never too late to do the right thing. And the right thing now for you to do is to join us in this campaign. You could start by coming to Charleville on March 1^st (10.30am, the Library Plaza in the centre of town) and marching with us on this significant day; you can continue by joining this campaign.

Ireland is still one of the best places in the world in which to live and work (if you're lucky enough to have a job). It has everything going for it – fish-filled rivers, lakes and seas, year-round growth in some of the best land on the planet, natural assets above and below ground, wondrous landscapes that continue to amaze millions of tourists from around the globe. Above all it has its people.

Just as the Greeks will rise when they get their new deal, just as the Spanish will rise, so will we. But first we get this unjust burden off our backs.

Regards, Diarmuid O'Flynn.

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH SYRIZA AND GREECE

This week in a European Parliament corridor I bumped into Manolis Glezos, the poll-topping Syriza MEP from Greece. 

Manolis is 93, a veteran of the Greek resistance against the Nazis in the Second World War, was twice sentenced to death – you can read about him in these two links. Following a short conversation, Manolis has agreed to join us some Sunday on the weekly Ballyhea protest march.

I ask ye, please go to those articles and read, learn, understand where exactly the likes of Manolis and his modern-day successors, Alexis Tsipras and Yanis Varoufakis are coming from. They don’t just , have history on their side, they have right, they have justice.

Then think of those politicians doing what they were elected to do – what they promised to do – and bringing Greece’s fight to Europe, but being lectured by Enda Kenny on how they SHOULD be behaving. And ask yourself – who would you want representing you right now?

Syriza are not spoiling for a fight, they are not the ones being stupidly stubborn; rather they are pointing out the glaringly obvious, that the austerity measures forced on their country by the Troika have failed drastically, have proved counter-productive, are driving Greece into the Dark Ages and need to be radically altered. This should start with TRUE debt write-down as opposed to the ‘extend and pretend’ measures adopted to date.

If ever there was a time for solidarity with Greece, this is it. The weekly Ballyhea Says No protest march tomorrow (Sunday, February 8^th) will offer just that. If you want to bring a sign supporting Syriza and Greece, do so, please.

Shoulder to shoulder with Manolis Glezos, a modern Greek legend