Ballyhea marchers are deserving of support

While watching BBC Northern Ireland’s news last Tuesday evening, I was surprised and delighted to see a report on the weekly protest, held every Sunday morning by the people of Ballyhea in Cork, against the bailout of Irish banks.

For a year now these wonderful people have silently maintained a protest, deserving of far more respect than it has been afforded to date. Each person interviewed by the BBC was both a credit to Cork and Ireland generally. Each spoke with pride, and in an informed manner. For these people to, as Martin Luther King said, “keep on keeping on”, every Sunday, rain or shine, is quite remarkable. It is also exasperating that this brilliant example of community solidarity has gone unnoticed by the national media here.

What struck me most about these fellow citizens of ours is that they aren’t ‘thick’, ‘ill-informed; or neither can they be pigeon-holed as anarchists, wanting to ’occupy’ Dame Street, or anything that could be dismissed as ‘protester-y’.