More on Ireland in this month’s magazine:
Julian Gough on why the Irish should marry their daughters to the IMF
Colin Murphy on Irish migration
Steingrímur Sigfússon, Iceland’s finance minister, had been planning to visit Dublin on 1st December to deliver a lecture to students at Trinity College. The title of his paper was “Iceland and the International Monetary Fund: what lessons for Ireland?” By chance, the longstanding engagement happened to fall a few days after Ireland had agreed the terms of a humiliating €85bn bailout by the IMF and a 16-member eurozone group led by Germany, and including Britain, Sweden and Denmark. In the event, diplomatic sensitivities prevailed, and Sigfússon, clearly not wishing to add to Ireland’s trauma, cancelled his trip. Two years after Iceland’s crisis, Ireland faces a similar nightmare: its banks may collapse, and the government may be unable to make good on its loans from the
COLUM_MCCAFFERY
There are three great lies told in Ireland these days. Firstly, it is lied that Ireland is just one case within a worldwide crisis. Secondly, it is lied that we all lost the run of ourselves and partied. Thirdly, it is lied that no one saw the problem and the inevitable collapse.
The truth is that the Celtic Tiger trudged off years ago and an illusion of prosperity and productivity was created by the intentional inflation of a specifically Irish property bubble. The international crisis cut off the crazy money to the banks and from an Irish perspective, it’s a pity it didn’t happen earlier. Complete chancers thrived in the carefully created madness while most people were unaffected. Certainly, there were jobs to be had and well paid ones at that but young people were fleeced as they were goaded onto “the Property ladder”. Only complete fools believed that the nonsense could last. (An economy building houses for the people who were building the houses! Give me a break! Incidentally, your present Chancellor seems to have fallen for it.)
In Ireland we now need a thorough cleanout of all those in positions which PAID them to think and who failed to speak out during The period of “national vandalism”. If they didn’t see the problem, they are far too stupid for most employment. If they saw the problem but remained silent, they lack the integrity necessary for most employment.