Letters to the Editor: Final march for bank-debt injustice at Ballyhea

On Wednesday, the Ballyhea Says Know campaign presented a report ‘The Eurozone Crisis — Was the Euro Itself A Primary Cause?’ to the GUE-NGL group in the European Parliament in Brussels.

The report was commissioned by Luke Ming Flanagan MEP and it is available on his website. It focuses on the issue on which the Ballyhea group has campaigned for nine years, the fact that the eurozone crisis and the subsequent bank bailout that cost Ireland so dearly was caused in large part by the disastrous design of the euro, then inflamed by EU institutions.

Quoting extensively from a range of experts, the case is made conclusively that this was in fact what happened.

Tomorrow, almost exactly nine years after our first protest, we will march for the last time.

Our aim was to draw attention to the bank-debt injustice done to Ireland, and to right that wrong through the dismissal of the Promissory Notes and compensation for other odious bank-debt incurred. On all those counts we failed, and won’t claim otherwise.

One thing that can never be said, however, is that we were wrong. The fatally-flawed euro design apart, the financial crash was caused by the greed and excesses of bankers and financiers, the bulk of the debt thus created was theirs and theirs alone though the blame and the debt has been transferred to us, the people.

The bailout across the eurozone affected many Member States of the EU. The result is that hundreds of billions of private bank-debt has been transposed to public debt, crippling national economies for generations. We were right to protest this nine years ago, we’re right today. But we’ve done our bit.

This was never a cause that should have been left to a small group from a small parish in a small country to fight. But fight it we did. Now it’s time for those whose duty it actually was, to take over — our elected representatives. This report contains all the evidence, all the testimony, all the proof they need to show that Ireland has been wronged, and badly wronged, by the EU. It is now up to them.

Anyone who has ever marched with us has contributed to this campaign, has kept the flame alight. We’re asking now, for this final march, that you join us again one last time — 10am (sharp) this Sunday in Ballyhea.

Diarmuid O’Flynn

Ballyhea

Co Cork