The people of Ballyhea in Co. Cork took to the streets again today in their now regular weekly protest against the IMF/ECB ‘bailout’, they marched under the slogan: “BALLYHEA SAYS NO!  TO BOND-HOLDER BAILOUT”

Ballyhea  has now held 17 protests, they happen every Sunday morning at 10.30am.  The protest has included a run to Dublin, to Dáil Éireann, where they handed in their petition.  This petition is still being collected, you can sign it here.

Today was a beautiful sunny morning, amidst the green lush countryside, the mood was upbeat.  Looking at our countryside on a day like today it is difficult to see why this country is importing agricultural produce or why we are in crisis at all – our country is full of all the resources any people could possibly need.

However, ‘our’ leaders have led us to crisis anyway …

The protest marched, on time, from outside the church in Ballyhea just a short distance out of the town, on what is a busy stretch of the main Cork / Limerick road, and returned again.  Everybody was in good spirits and seemed confident that they were doing the right thing, a stand must be taken to highlight this great injustice against the Irish people.

During the short time that the protest took nearly ever motorist who passed expressed enthusiastic support, waiving, hooting and some calling greetings – they appreciated the stand being taken.

There was no big fanfare, party political banners (we understand they would not be allowed anyway), there was no ‘left’ wing, no ‘right’ wing, no ‘isms’ of any kind involved – just people expressing their protest.

The spirit of the protest seems to be for basic democracy and simply doing the right thing.  The message is that the Irish people should not have to pay for the failed investments or gambling of anyone else, yet this is exact what is being forced onto us.

Diarmuid O’Flynn, who is one of the organisers, referred people to monitor the NAMA Wine Lake blog in order to get detailed information on this scandal.  We understand that the Ballyhea group are working on their own leaflet outlining the case to the public, it may be available next week.

These protests at Ballyhea have been joined by others in Fermoy and Charliville in country Cork and by people in Cork city itself.

Recently we have also had the emergence of the Spanish inspired #irishrevolution / #spanishrevolution TRUE DEMOCRACY NOW activity, giving a European dimension and underlining ‘democracy’ and the end of political dictate as being the basic demand.

Other protests have taken place, one of the first groups organising in Kilmacow in south county Kilkenny – in January they organised a 9 day long march to the Dáil from Kilmacow, they have had other activities since.

There are protests taking place all over the country, even though these are at a small scale when compared to what is happening in other European countries.

thefuture Initiative encourages citizens to take up this question, we believe it is of vital importance to our future.  This issue of the IMF/ECB so called ‘bailout’ is one of democracy, why have the people not been consulted, even on such a big question as this?

The truth is that the ruling powers-that-be do not care one bit for democracy or the needs of the Irish people, they and their political parties are acting as good servants to the powerful vested interests that back them in turn.  If they think this is the best way to serve the interests of the Irish people they must be very naive indeed and disconnected from people.

The bankruptcy of the policy being followed by our government, and it was the same with the last government, is demonstrated on a daily and weekly basis.  On Friday last Minister Noonan advised that the Irish people were saving too much, he advocated that we should spend more and that this would make the difference!!  Today on RTÉ radio 1 he explained that when our government was taking advice from and hearing the position of the ECB that “a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse” applied during negotiations.

This is how they conduct our affairs when dealing with their real masters, when they are dealing with the Irish people there are no “nods and winks” – it is a case of cut, cut, cut … we are just voting fodder every few years!