Cramps, hospital drips, a hostile reception at Barack Obama’s pub and a country that still makes you feel proud: the Ballyhea protest comes to Leinster House

During the week, I was reminded of the Simon and Garfunkel 1960s song “America” when reading the daily updates by Diarmuid O’Flynn, the Corkman who ran/walked/cycled from the village of Ballyhea in Cork through Munster and Leinster all the way to the Dail, collecting signatures on the way for a petition which aims to change the present stance with dealing with bondholders. He was accompanied at various stages by Ballyhea villagers who have been holding weekly bondholder protests every Sunday for three months. During the week, at each stop along the way, they collected signatures and held a small token march like the one they hold each week in Ballyhea; in other words, short, non-political and peaceful.

The daily updates make for an absolutely engrossing read which on a human level graphically illustrates the cramps and the pains faced by a man in his 50s in taking on the equivalent of an Iron Man challenge (they started off by running downhill from Ballyhea and it didn’t take long for the cramps to get a foothold). It is also instils a lot of pride in our fellow countrymen and women as he gets assisted along the way by locals, by his children and by his array of contacts in the GAA (Diarmuid is a sports journalist with the Irish Examiner). He needed a short pit-stop in a hospital as well.  And in the main, he seems to have been welcomed and treated well, even by Gardai in the middle of Dublin who might have been otherwise sniffy with an unsanctioned protest but instead gave a helping hand. On the other hand, you might feel angry when reading the treatment of the group at Barack Obama’s pub in Moneygall. Diarmuid also paints a picture of Irish society with towns and villages looking deserted, and where people are upset and angry with the financial crisis but just not ready to demonstrate their feelings.

You can read about their weekly protest in Ballyhea at their Facebook page which has plenty of photographs to illustrate their efforts. There is a blog which records progress here. And there is an online petition here which has over 500 signatures and is separate to the Olde Worlde technology, that is paper, petition which was completed during the week and handed in to the Dail.

The Ballyhea protest is unconnected with NAMA wine lake but their efforts have been followed closely here. There’s nothing madcap or fanatical about the protest. It’s an ordinary, you might say, “typical” village which suffers from the same effects of this financial crisis as elsewhere, it was poignant to read a few weeks ago that they lost a family in the weekly demonstration, who had emigrated to Canada.

There is a wider debate about paying off €60bn of bondholders which on one side points out that it is a condition imposed by the ECB which is presently allowing Irish banks to remain open by providing over €100bn in funding at very low interest rates. On the other side, you have a nation paying the colossal debts of private institutions, and whilst getting the day-to-day deficit in running the country eliminated will be painful, it is unacceptable to pile additional debt on top which will only exacerbate the pain. The debate isn’t over and Minister Noonan still hasn’t put that €24bn into the banks. And despite the mass media here reporting that Greece has agreed the way forward, it hasn’t, there has merely been staff-level agreement and now the principals, the boards and governing councils of the IMF, EU and ECB have to decide a way forward. From this perspective, a Greek default looks probable. And if the Greeks default and stay in the euro with the ECB still in charge, then why can’t we repudiate senior bondholder debt?

So well done to the villagers of Ballyhea. And to Diarmuid himself, I’ll leave you with that line from “America” which might seem to have some relevance this Sunday morning after you’ve completed the 13th weekly demonstration

“I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why”

but I hope you continue, and receive the support to continue.