This is Patrick O'Brien, son of John and Clara O'Brien, grandson of Pat and Frances O'Brien, the youngest participant (if a child can be said to be a participant in anything!) on Sunday last in the weekly Ballyhea/Charleville march in protest against the ongoing bank bondholder bailout.
Patrick was born on Jan 2nd 2012, by which time our weekly protest had already been going for 43 weeks and during which time our banks paid out nearly €10bn in bonds.
Since Patrick was born our banks have paid out a further €13.7bn. Because we now own outright (within a percentage or two) five of the six remaining banks (AIB, Anglo, EBS, IL&P, INBS), with a considerable stake in the sixth (BofI), the bulk of those payments have come from us, from money we have poured into those banks.
Patrick O'Brien, and all the other Patrick O'Briens out there, will pay and pay dearly for that bank bondholder bailout. This is the legacy being left to this generation by our generation, this is the policy adopted by Brian Cowen, the late Brian Lenihan and the Greens in the last coalition government, this is the policy now being pursued by Enda Kenny, Eamon Gilmore and the others in this coalition government. Cuts in health and education, those two basics of any civilization, additional taxes when they finally reach working age, that's the future as now being presented to Patrick.
To try to end this lunacy, to try and awaken people to what's happening, the crime being committed against us all, John and Clara march with us.
This week, for example, two zombie banks will pay four bonds valued between them at over €1.1bn. Those bonds are from Anglo and from INBS, are totally unsecured and unguaranteed; to pay them we will be taking from the future of such as Patrick, to give to failed bondholders from failed banks.
Yesterday I was 59. This is what my generation is doing to Patrick's generation, this is the option taken by Enda Kenny, Michael Noonan, Eamon Gilmore and Pat Rabbitte, to bail out bank bondholders at the expense of the new and future generations of Irish. This is our legacy to them.
As a member of this generation I feel shame and I feel anger, deep shame and deep anger. Gutless and gormless, those have been the hallmark qualities of our political leadership, craven capitulation in the face of the ECB's financial blackmail and the Merkle-led political bullying. Fear has been their guiding light, a stark contrast to the those who founded their parties. Michael Collins cycled around Dublin when he had a price on his head, Enda Kenny skulks around the country with a bevy of heavies in two whenever he does choose to appear but refuses to engage in public debate.
This week in Ballyhea we will be holding our 70th weekly march to protest this crime against the people, not just a crime against Irish people but against people right across Europe, including the German people. Be under no illusion, what Europe is suffering is a banking crisis; the ECB's solution is to ordain to the individual governments that the people must bail out the banks. The banks, they tell us, are too big to fail; our message to them now must be - No! We the people are too big to fail!
This week's table of shame - note the three bonds due today, think of the ethics involved in this transfer of wealth, the morality. March with us.
This week's table of shame - note the three bonds due today, think of the ethics involved in this transfer of wealth, the morality. March with us.
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