A bond is not sacred. Equality before the law is sacred. So a default or partial default has to treat all bond-holders of the Irish state the same way. The strategy outlined here - let the wrong type of creditors bleed -can't work.

I mentioned the 100 billion owned by Irish banks to the ECB. That is not a hedgefund. Nor even really foreign. And the considerable sums that the Irish governments already put in the banks is a fact too.

I think that is offered here is a illusion. Bankruptcy without the pains of bankruptcy. Make the foreign evils pay.

The problem in Ireland is the neoliberal policy of the last irish governments, supported by a substantial part of the Irish voters. The mentality now - we will keep the mansion but shed the debt is not real helpful.