Irish Debts

I used to be a frequent visitor to the Irish Republic but I have not been there in the three years since I retired. It was always a pleasure to go there - particularly to the area around Cork which I came to know very well. I was there when Ireland was experiencing the most prosperous days in its history, when wages were high, the economy was booming, people were buying splendid houses and with high inward investment - particularly in pharmaceuticals - it looked as though the good times could never end. But it was an illusion. They built an economy on debt and an unsustainable growth in house prices. The banks lent too much and investors were guaranteed the safety of their assets up to 100% by the Irish government.

In spite of more cut-backs, reductions in government spending, lower wages and increases in taxation, the government is seeing the economy shrinking more and more. Yet the bank debts still loom. It now looks as though they will be bailed out by the EU - whether they like it or not. This bail out has more to do with the potential up-coming disasters of Portugal, Spain and Italy. We can forget Greece. Greece will go bust.

Ireland has been invaded, exploited, wrecked, subjected to mass murder and ignored at various points by the English and later, the British. Above everything, of course, stands the Great Famine from 1845 to 1850, when half the population died or emigrated - never to return. It was a catastrophe of the first order, which need not have happened and should not have happened. The generally poor and indigenous Irish population lived almost entirely on potatoes and when potato blight destroyed the crop, partly or totally during every year of that five year period, they had nothing to eat. Yet throughout the period Ireland remained a net exporter of food. Had they been ordered to cut exports by 25% there could have been enough food to feed the whole population. But no! This was the era of unrestrained laissez faire capitalism. The markets must decide. And one million Irish men, women and children died.

Now with unemployment rising and graduates unable to find jobs, homes left on building sites unfinished and empty houses unsaleable, the young people are starting to leave again. They are doing what the Irish have always done. They are leaving to get jobs in England and America.

The bankers will be OK, of course. They will take the bail out money and stoke it into their bonuses as reward for doing that which they do best. Steal , spend and squander other people's money and wreck the economies of the world. Not just Irish banks but any banks.

I wish Ireland and the Irish well. I don't doubt that they will survive this disaster like they have survived all other disasters. And like most other disasters, this one should never have been allowed to happen — but it did!

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