O'Flynn saw the bailout of bondholders as central to what has been done to the country. Tens of billions of private business debts, transferred to the citizens, breaking the State's ability to borrow at sustainable levels of interest. He reckons the total cost of bailing out the bondholders, with interest over the years to come, will be a hundred billion.
"The ECB is allowing us borrow a hundred billion, so we can spend a hundred billion paying off bondholders."
Over the months, the march through the tiny village grew to around 70, sometimes slipping back. It's a strong GAA village, quiet, conservative, unused to standing out from the crowd. If the under-14s need a lift to a match, and a cheer from the sidelines, if farmers are especially busy, the ranks of the march become thinner. But month after month, the village has continued to bear witness to the madness.
Hopes that the protest would spread were unfulfilled. There was activity in Fermoy for a while, but it petered out. A march to Dublin was met with indifference. O'Flynn sees the sense in protests on specific issues -- the A&E scandal, the tuition fees -- or in the Occupy movement. But, in talking to individual protesters, aware of the huge transfer of wealth, and what that does to the State's finances, he has been moved to ruminate. "Lads, can you not make the connection?"
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