A strong majority of Irish people want the government to default on the billions owed to bondholders of Irish banks according to a new Sunday Independent poll.

The poll shows that 57 per cent approve of such a move while 43 per cent oppose.

It is hardly surprising given the fact that new information shows that most of the bondholders are major European banks and brokerage houses (see list in accompanying article on this site) who made massive money when Anglo- Irish especially was borrowing billions from them, but refuse to accept the losses now that the deals have gone bad.

Instead they want the Irish taxpayer to pay.

The newspaper quotes an Irish government source saying that when the idea of default was put to European bankers, preparing the IMF rescue loan they "went ballistic,'

That is almost certainly because they know if Ireland defaults on its loans other countries will find themselves in a deep hole with their own banks, on the hook for the Irish money.

"The Europeans went completely mad," a senior government source told the newspaper when the idea was floated.

I think there will be a few twists in this story yet. A new Irish government may face incredible pressure to ease the crippling tax burden on their people and force the bondholders to pay up.

They may also decide that leaving the euro, the source of all the cheap credit that banjaxed the country may be the way to go