Last Sunday morning the Gods smiled on the small village of Ballyhea, Co Cork.

Last Sunday morning the Gods smiled on the small village of Ballyhea, Co Cork.

After Mass, the residents gathered in the winter sun to protest - for the 200th time - against Ireland's crippling bank debt. After a short, silent march - with banners galore - the crowd assembled at a hotel in nearby Charleville.

While tucking into mince pies and mulled wine, they heard speeches from such diverse politicians as Roscommon hero Luke 'Ming' Flanagan, and Kerry's quietly effective independent TD, Tom Fleming.

The spirit of Ballyhea is strong. A small village in Cork is flying the flag for all citizens of Ireland, insisting that Irish governments should not burden bankers' debts on unborn generations of Irish children. Local residents such as Diarmuid O'Flynn and Fiona Fitzpatrick have refused to give up the fight.

I was privileged to join the battle- hardened protesters. The mood of the marchers was surprisingly upbeat. Of course one or two were quietly asking whether their efforts were being heard in high places. Had the bank debtors' ship sailed? Had Ballyhea been buried by Enda Kenny and Angela Merkel?

A couple of glasses of mulled wine put a stop to such seditious talk. A few bold speeches by Fleming and Flanagan - bolstered by economist Constantin Gurdgiev - raised their spirits. Gurdgiev's description of himself as a "free marketeer" killed any suggestion that rural Ballyhea had somehow spawned some left-wing maverick group. Bank debt crosses the political divide.

The Ballyhea protest is reminiscent of the anti-apartheid strike at Dunnes Stores in the mid-1980s. The group was small and sometimes unsung at the time - but ultimately victorious and recognised by posterity.

On Sunday, we left Ballyhea emboldened, but wondered where the next flicker of hope would emerge. Ballyhea needed a break. Happily the village did not have to wait for long.

On Monday morning in faraway Greece a political explosion went off. Once again, a crisis was driven by debt. Angela Merkel must have choked on her pork and sauerkraut as she heard the news. A snap general election was being called in Greece because the government could not secure a nomination for its presidential candidate.

Opinion polls suggest that the left- wing Syriza party is likely to win. Its leader, Alexis Tsipras, has risen to the top due to his insistence that Greece refuses to pay back its debts to the European Union and the ECB. This weekend Tsipras is poised for power. European leaders feel shivers running down their spines.

Tsipras' demands that Greece defies its creditors have eerie echoes of Enda Kenny's promises before the last general election. Of course Kenny did a volte face and capitulated to Merkel, the bankers and the bondholders. Ireland's Taoiseach was exposed as a Paper Tiger.

Europe fears that Tsipras the Greek is made of sterner stuff. So do the stock markets. After the Greek election was called on Monday, equities in Athens dropped by 12pc followed by further falls on Tuesday. Yields on 10-year bonds rose above 9pc. Money was reported as flowing out of Greece and into Germany.

The Greek crisis must be doubly galling for the European powerhouses as the battered nation was about to become the second poster boy for Europe.

Following the austerity measures, they had claimed that the Greek economy had turned, it had moved into a primary surplus, and next year it would be the second fastest growing economy in Europe (after Ireland) and even unemployment was falling.

Greek premier Antonis Samaras was being teed-up by European leaders for the type of poisoned plaudits that Kenny has been receiving for imposing their austerity medicine on his people.

Now all bets are off. If Tsipras becomes premier on January 25 the debt will be back on the table. Tsipras has probably given even more hostages to fortune than Kenny did. The euro will be under a fresh threat.

European leaders are already spinning against debt write-off, until listening journalists grow dizzy. This time, they insist, it is different.

Perhaps they did bottle it in 2012 when Greece went walkabout, but today we have a banking union, a €500bn ESM fund available and a European Central Bank prepared to buy the bonds of countries under pressure.

The worried chiefs of Europe are claiming that since 2012 they have erected walls to protect them against contagion from Greece or any other nation threatening default. If Tsipras is elected, they will not blink again, like they did two years ago.

They are confidently suggesting that Tsipras, the leader of a small economy, will be isolated if he tries to eyeball Angela. She will simply call his bluff. They no longer fear the debt domino effect.

Perhaps she should tell Tsipras to ask Enda's advice - especially as Ireland's leader did not even leave the default grenade on the table long enough for his bluff to be called. He could always be despatched as a European envoy to Athens, preaching the long-term benefits of surrender to austerity.

The antics of other European leaders have not enhanced the prospects of their favourite premier, Samaras, beating Tsipras in the January poll. Last month, no less a clown than European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker delivered an arsenal of ammunition to the anti-austerity brigade. As the controversy that caused the Greek crisis - the presidential nomination - raged, Juncker threw the boomerang. In a comment on the contest he insisted that he would prefer "known faces" in power in Greece while simultaneously warning Greek citizens against "extreme forces".

His remarks were seen by Greek voters as gross interference in Greek politics by an arrogant European bureaucrat. Worse still, his words were interpreted as visceral hostility to Greek radicals, though Juncker later weakly protested that they were directed at the extreme right.

Whichever is correct, European officials telling Greeks who to pick as their leaders is guaranteed to have the opposite effect.

While the Athens stock market has tanked at the prospect of the arrival of Tsipras, European stocks are watching - nervously. They have wobbled over the week but have not yet collapsed. Nevertheless the euro has weakened to $1.21 against the dollar, its lowest level for over two-and-a-half years.

Europe's weakness may prove Tsipras' opportunity. Europe is in economic slumberland with pitiful growth figures. Austerity has not worked. Youth unemployment (particularly in Spain and Italy) is intractably high. Europe has failed to break the vicious circle between bank and sovereign debt. Banking union is in its infancy, not in its implementation. The booming US economy is leaving the fragile eurozone flat-footed.

And today, hanging over all this weakness is the prospect of a volatile socialist coming to power, demanding that Greece's debt is written down.

The European chieftains fear him in a way that they never feared Kenny. Even more ominous for them is the tweaked tone of his demands in recent weeks. Tsipras is no longer requiring a total debt write-off, moderating his manifesto to writing off just 50pc of the national debt and an end to austerity. He is even promising to stay in the eurozone and negotiate a new deal, rather than unilaterally repudiating the debt on his arrival in office. He sees the real prospect of power after January 25.

So do Angela Merkel, Mario Draghi and poor Jean-Claude Juncker. Europe is in rag order, in no condition for an economic shock from the south. They may yet be forced to make concessions to an unpredictable, new Greek premier rattling his sabre.

How embarrassing this could be to Enda? Imagine a recalcitrant Greek rascal extracting debt write-off from the same European hard men and women who had told Ireland's premier to surrender before the negotiations started.

Tsipras might not be flavour of the month in Frankfurt - but Greek citizens would be spared the hardship accepted by Ireland's empty vessels.

Enda would be humiliated, forced to return to the table, demanding that Ireland receives the same debt write-off concessions as Greece.

The brave marchers from Ballyhea may yet enjoy another day in the sun.

Sunday Indo Business