Captain Midnight And The Land Wars, 21st Century Style

There was a time when it was illegal for an Irish Catholic to own land, and that heritage played out violently during the land wars of the late Nineteenth Century. Captain Midnight roamed the countryside, according to legend, but it was just a group of vigilantes targeting those who tried to evict tenants from the land they could not own.

People are being evicted yet again, but this time it's all about foreclosed mortgages and payments in arrears. An Irish Catholic can own land, but it's not an easy proposition if you've lost your job and can't afford to reimburse the bank that loaned you the money to buy that land.

Once the secret discussions between bankers came out, plotting to use the taxpayers like piggy banks, those who are being squeezed by those same banks have decided that they aren't going to be pushed around by the fatcats who played the government for a fool. The banks were bailed out and they manipulated the facts to convince the Irish taxpayers to save them. Now those taxpayers want a little consideration for themselves, whether it be more time to meet expenses or a refinancing to make the loan more affordable.

Allsop Space has called in the guards to keep the irate citizenry at bay while they try, yet again, to auction off distressed properties for banks wishing to recoup their investments. That citizenry has no sympathy for the banks, to be sure, and it does not help that Allsop Space is based in England. It's the old "British landlord vs. Irish tenant" match-up that roiled the country over one hundred years ago. In time, that particular round of protests escalated and then it was 1916 and the firing commenced.

They weren't shooting guns in Dublin last Saturday, but the attempt to conduct the property auction was met with outrage and protests by people who have had more than enough of bankers and their shenanigans.

If it is any consolation, Allsop has made it known that it doesn not accept repossessed family homes for sale. They are strictly involved in auctioning business properties, like pubs or offices. And they have an office in Ireland. And they employ Irish people.

You know, like the old gombeen men?