Today I went for a walk...

... and it looks like a few thousand people had the very same idea.
The turnout was in any case a lot more than last week.

Today's march was a lot more politicized. Which is not good.
But the alternative would be no one speaking out at all. Which would be worse.

Ok, I'm French. But I'm not that French.

It's just that this time I feel strongly enough about what is currently happening to go and march two weeks in a row.

Ireland is just about to borrow the kind of money that it simply cannot afford to. Fitfty four billion euro to me more precise.

If we estimate the current population of Ireland at 4 million (and declining fast), it represents a borrowing equivalent to thirteen and half grand per man, woman, child, drag queen, civil servant, publican, priest or Michael Flatley impersonator.
That is a lot of money.
If I were asked to write a cheque for 13.5 big ones to bail out the reckless so-called financial market experts and the disastrous decisions they took on behalf of their shareholders, my answer would must likely begin with an assertive F and end with a thunderous off..

But you see, I'm not being asked. I'm being told.

A bit as if in a big emergency family meeting, Granddad (who you don't particularly like) decided that the whole family would chip in for the 3 uncles with a big gambling problem, and as the family at large is pretty much skinned already as it is, we would all collectively go to the local loan sharks to borrow far more than we can repay, to get the gambling uncles off the hook.

That's NAMA in a nutshell.

I'm not a financial expert (but I'm confident that I could also make disastrous decisions if asked) but the voice of logic tells me that buying bad debt is not necessarily a good thing.
Even buying "good" debt would raise my suspicion...

One last thing. And I am speaking as a French expatriate living in Ireland for the last 16 years.
I can only praise the professionalism with which the Irish police has handled the 2 marches I've been to so far. I am convinced that if "security" had been handled by the CRS (French riot police), violence would have erupted on both sides and cars would be burning long into the night.

Rejects:
Does my horse look big on this
Ban-NAMA republic
These guys who wrote them books + a few banners
Not please, oh no
Photogenic grumpy protestor
Death among us
More B/W with Jimmy Larkin in the bagkground
Child and pet friendly event