They've made headlines from Berlin to Boston but now, after five years of rallies every Sunday, " Ballyhea says No to the Bondholders" are to hold their last weekly march through the small north Cork hamlet
.
But founder Diarmuid O Flynn is not getting nostalgic, stressing the campaign will continue even though those travelling between Cork and Limerick will no longer be greeted by the sight of the people of Ballyhea and Charleville taking to the N20 to register their protest after Mass every Sunday.
“Sunday will be our 262nd march and it will be a celebration because we feel five years is a hell of a long time, and a hell of a sacrifice by a lot of people, but we feel it has gained traction now and we have established what we are going to establish with it,” he says.
"Ballyhea says No" held its first protest on March 6th 2011 and O'Flynn explains that the idea behind the weekly protest, which at times drew over 300, stemmed from both what was happening in Ireland with the banks and what he saw happening elsewhere during the Arab Spring.
"I had been emailing Fianna Fáil and Green TDs for several months about us bailing out the banks and, when the new government came into office in 2011, I thought they'd take the fight on for us but rather than take our fight to Europe, they brought Europe's fight to us with their austerity policies," he says.
"At that time in 2011, North Africa was in flames and I had worked in Libya for a number of years and I knew what people there were doing – they were taking their lives in their hands by taking to the streets – so I said the least we could do here was march . . ."
What started in Ballyhea brought the group all the way to the EU where they argued the Irish people should not be held liable for the billions of private debt of bondholders, with the story of the weekly march being covered by everyone from the Washington Post to al-Jazeera.
Among those there from the outset was businessman Noel Hanley from Charleville who describes the decision by the government to take on the private debt of the bondholders and foist it on the Irish people as "one of the greatest scandals ever".
“What we wanted to do when we started was keep it an issue so that people wouldn’t forget it . . . The march was symbolic but the message was important.”
O’Flynn remains optimistic after securing a pledge from 40 new TDs to support a cross-party committee to present Ireland’s case in Europe for bank debt write-off. “The weekly marches may be stopping but we won’t hold our final march until we’ve secured bank debt write down for Ireland.”
