Cork not living up to ‘Rebel’ name

I agree with your correspondent Joseph Mackey (Aug 15) concerning the name ‘Red Rebels’ being redundant, but on a much broader scale. The fact is that the term ‘Rebel Cork’ is a myth, a fallacy and an oxymoron, as the reality is that Cork people have failed to display any rebel tendencies since the War of Independence.

Recent events since the economic crash in 2008 have shown the stark reality that Corkonians, just like the rest of the country, are compliant and accepting, if not docile in the extreme.

For instance, ‘Rebel Cork’ since 2008 has meekly accepted, and without a whimper, an unprecedented and disproportionate portion of the private debt of our dysfunctional and crooked bankers. This unsustainable debt was unilaterally foisted on our shoulders by an equally dysfunctional and corrupt political class, totalling a staggering €64bn, which will be paid for in part by future generations of Corkonians, ad infinitum.

‘Rebel Cork’ has fully accepted the resultant austerity measures which have gouged €28bn from our economy to pay foreign bond holders and extortionate debt-related interest rates, and targeted against the most vulnerable in society. We are standing idly by while the domestic economy is being decimated, suicide rates are at an all-time high, nearly half a million unemployed and the fabric and cohesion of Irish society irreparably sundered.

Worst of all, ‘Rebel Cork’ looks on despairingly while thousands of our skilled and educated young, and not so young, are abandoned by the Government and forced to seek better lives abroad, grafting in the mines and bars of Australia and Canada.

Astonishingly, we the rebels, accept again in meek submission and certainly without objection or revolt, the terrible vista which befalls us daily, especially as it is driven by the same political class and their cronies, guilty of gross negligence if not economic treason, while they cushion and protect themselves with Celtic Tiger world power salaries, pensions and perks, despite having ultimate responsibility for bankrupting the country.

Now that the banks are back in the driving seat and in bonus mode again, courtesy of the government’s latest insolvency legislation, the real question is, will ‘Rebel Cork’ remain mute and aloof while hundreds of our neighbours are evicted from their homes, their shops and small businesses, to demonstrate to Mrs Merkel and the markets, that we have a ‘virile and strong government’ making the ‘hard decisions’, and that the old jack boot/battering ram tactics are alive and well and as efficient today as in 1846?

To access a good example of a benign but effective contemporary revolt, Rebel Cork and the rest would do well to look to our distant cousins in Iceland. The Icelandic government, driven by people power, took a diametrically opposite and adult course of action to the economic crash in 2008: unlike us, they developed a spine and simply stood up to the big boys. The government of this small state decided, while under huge foreign pressure, to give the welfare of the Icelandic people and society primacy over foreign bond holders and investors. The result: Iceland is powering ahead with 5% unemployment, a near balanced budget and is in rude economic health today.

John Healy,

Bishopstown Road,

Cork