27.05.2012 - 15:27 [ Guardian ]

Ireland‘s small-town solution to euro uncertainty: bringing back the punt

Three days before Ireland‘s crucial referendum on the eurozone‘s fiscal pact – a vote that could complicate further the debate over austerity in Europe – the citizens of Clones are already taking matters into their own hands. Butchers, bar owners, shopkeepers, barbers and ordinary citizens of the County Monaghan town have in effect resurrected the old Irish currency bearing the faces of past Irish heroes such as Catholic emancipator Daniel O‘Connell as the punt exchanges hands and is tucked into the tills.