And so it begins

I don’t think Argentina is a good example when it comes to Ireland. You default and devalue your currency which results in imports drastically being cut because you can no longer afford those items. Argentina has oil and gas and is energy self sufficient. They have numerous other natural resources. They have automobile manufacturing, steel manufacturing, appliance manufacturing, electronic manufacturing, etc. Ireland would still have to be importing these type of items.

Ballyhea bond holder bailout group. Say that 10 times really fast.

The cynic in me would love to know if any of our financial advisors / decision makers also appear on the list of Anglo bondholders.

Definitely fair play to them. All ten of them. What they really need is for about 10’000 to join them and then appear in every major town and you’ll have a chance.

The reality is we have two choices and most commentators have little understanding of the consequences of the second which is to ignore our undertakings and default on the payment.
If the Troika wished they could make an example of Ireland as a small country and hang us out to dry.
We live in a democracy and both the present and last Governments took decisions on our behalf that are binding on us both morally and legally.
I have respect for those people objecting without any great knowledge of economics but the comments of Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein over the past few days are appalling. Their stance is one that would see Ireland returned to income levels of the 1950’s if we were to listen. They either know this in which case their behaviour is tantamount to economic treason or they don’t understand and are guilty of much worse.
In simple terms the situation could be described as a small customer not paying his bills to a large supplier. After repeated warnings the supplier stops shipping goods and warns all other suppliers to do the same. The goods in this case are money on which we depend for literally everything we do and need on a daily basis. Little things like your neighbour the Nurse or the local Garda not getting paid.The same thing would happen to the Doctor and the guy who calls to your home when you need an ambulance etc etc etc.
Then in an act of despair the Government would abandon the Euro and reintroduce the Punt but no one outside of Ireland would want it at any price and thus we get to meltdown in one quick go.
Think it couldn’t happen?.Think again because it already has on two occasions in the last fifty years in Argentina.
Next time your local mad economist or Sinn Fein TD or other wacko commentator waves the red flag of abuse at our Government just pause and think for a moment. Anarchy would suit people of this persuasion.Just don’t get us all caught up in it please………….please?

Eddie you clearly have not understood the price that Greeks will pay for this.Just ask yourself why the ordinary people have been demonstrating in such numbers and with such violence over the past few months. Public servants will be reduced by forty thousand in number and those still at work will have salaries reduced by forty per cent and pay more in every form of tax. Social welfare benefits including the contributory pension have been decimated and you want us to do this……you want Ireland to be pushed back another twelve years in economic terms and the austerity programme to last until 2025.
Please tell us what planet your from or what substance you are abusing………thanks

Fair play! Up the Rebel County!

The Irish Government should just have a referendum, that way we’ll get exactly what we asked for, and maybe just maybe I won’t have to listen to all the arm chair politicians and economists bleating on as if they were central to any negotiations. The reality is no one really knows where any of this is going. Here’s a question people should pose to themselves honestly though, at this moment in time would you rather be in the Greek economic mess or the Irish economic mess? I’d rather be in the Irish one, there have been plenty of positive signs coming out of the Irish economy, do we want to jeopardise this? ( I could be wrong, but is thejournal using an american spell checker?)

The co council must of been supporting them also creating tailbacks between Buttevant and newtwopothouse this morning with roadworks at ballybeg. Bad day to be Drivin on the N20 in north cork!!

Why don’t we just not pay the money and see what happens. The money is there so just hang onto it, call their bluff so to speak. If the shit hits the fan then just hand over the money and move on. Maybe that’s too simple a solution

I am from that area and I know many of the people involved in this group and I would like to say well done to them although I don’t think protesting in such small numbers makes much of a difference they have stuck to there task and have gained the world of publicity for themselves and there cause and let’s not forget they are standing up for what they believe is right even if you agree with them or not we live in a democratic society and they have a right to stand up for what they believe is right, so well done to them.

if Anglo had been allowed to collapse this bond would not have been paid. It’s pretty obvious that ff made a huge error there by rescuing it and the guards are supposedly investigating the circumstances (cowen and Seanie up a tree…). Mark made a long comment on his view of this payout, but the only part I agreed with was when he said fianna fail were guilty of economic treason.

we should not have bailed out the banks at all. it broke all the ideological rules of Milton Friedmans free market, aka the system. the result is people see the system does not work and they’ve lost trust in it, hence all the anger we all feel. we need a new system but no one has come up with one yet. until they do we are stuck in the shit and no amount of economic plate spinning is gonna solve it.

some of the comments here which thankfully are a minortiy are typical of people who dismiss all protest as a waste of time and would rather spend their whole time holed up in their little atomised bubbles watching x factor or some other crap reinforcing their narrow world view that pretends we’re all greedy grasping competitors at each other throats rather than acknowledging that as a collective we achieve so much more. As Eddie Barrett quite rightly states it’s precisely protest that got the Greeks a write down in their debt and the gov’t eventually caving in and giving the Greek people some sort of democratic say in a referendum. It’s the Government’s faithful adherence to the IMF/EU neo-liberal austerity medicine that has ensured the Greek economy will be in recession for the next 15 years. The austerity measures are taking billions out of the economy so there’s less for people to spend on goods and services. It doesn’t take a phd in economics to work that out though with few exceptions (the so-called mad economists if you believe Mark) most mainstream economists, either academics or the self serving lackeys that work for the banks and stockbrokers and who for some bizarre reason are treated as gospel on rte keep insisting that the gov’t should continue following the neo-liberal policies that got us into this mess in the first place. More power to the people of Ballyhea, you’re an inspiration to us all and I hope we can replicate your protests here in Dublin.

In the series “Lost” one of the characters kept keying in a number otherwise there would be catastrophic result if he didn’t or so he believed. Can we take the chance, the risk, the leap in the dark by not paying the bondholders? should we just stop, and see what happens, I don’t know, I say keep typing in the number the risk is too big for the price we are paying at the moment.

Also Eddie the Greek debt is probably owed in part to something like yours or your parents pension fund. Quite the clever bot aren’t you.

how is stopping traffic a protest against the bailout?

Bravado talk about burning unsecured bond holders is a bit like saying that we should pay our mortgages because the bank can take our houses but stop paying our credit cards because these are unsecured. You stop paying credit card and you end up listed in the credit bureau. Then you will never get a loan again. That is what happens to a person. Imagine what would happen to a country.

Yes the deal was terrible. We had no say. We also had no choice. Now we do. Get over this problem as fast as possible. Get back in markets. Never let it happen again!!

Hasn’t a Council of State upended a previous No by the People, so what is there to stop this happening again.
Sovereignty and Democracy under the E.U. Is it possible?

Generate support among locals by pissing them off.

What an intelligent idea……