Boiling a frog

Today the 99.8% State owned AIB pays out a senior unsecured bond of €1.5bn - marking the end of an eventful six weeks for a bank to which the Irish State has contributed €20.7bn. By Diarmuid O'Flynn.

How do you boil a live frog (had you a cruel enough mind to do so, of course)? You put it in cold water under a low flame, and with the temperature rising only very gradually the frog will sit happily in the pot until – well, until ‘hopping it’ is no longer an option.

Problem solving

There should be no debate; in using its financial muscle to extort under threat tens of billions from the Irish exchequer, what the ECB is doing – with the complicity of the EU and the Irish Government complicit - is a crime. By Diarmuid O'Flynn.

That we have a major problem in the Irish economy at the moment is beyond question. How to solve it? The same way you solve any other problem, and using the same basic principles – go back to the source, then take whatever steps are necessary.

Call for national protest at payment of $1bn Anglo bond

For the past 34 weeks, people in the north Cork village of Ballyhea have met up every Sunday and walked the length of the village in quiet protest at the decision to hold the Irish taxpayer liable for monstrous bank debts. Diarmuid O’Flynn is one of those who has marched in Ballyhea every Sunday for the past 34 weeks. He is now calling for people all over the country to down tools at noon next Tuesday (1 November) in protest at the $1bn unsecured, unguaranteed Anglo bond due to be paid the following day. Below, he explains why.