I COMPLIMENT you on your coverage of the Irish banking and financial crisis in last week’s issue.  John Spain in particular has been spot on these past few months predicting what was going to happen.
Reading his columns was like watching a bad movie that you already knew the ending to.  You wanted to hit the pause button so many times and re-write the script, but the incompetent leaders in both the government and banking sector made that impossible.

Spain wrote a few weeks back that the government is basically run by former schoolteachers and inexperienced locals who have no idea how to operate a business.  I think the next government that comes into power must include people who have thorough economic backgrounds – a former CEO of a major corporation, for example.

This will likely never happen, but it should.  I have been watching the likes of Fine Gael party leader Enda Kenny in action, and he definitely does not inspire a great deal of confidence.  What experience does he have in dealing with a crisis of the magnitude that Ireland is facing?

And Sinn Fein? What exactly is their economic policy? I shudder to think.

I hope that the next Irish leaders at least have the good sense to enlist some very experienced business thinkers to help get them out of the mess that they are in, because they will not be able to do it on their own.

There are many Irish American business experts who no doubt would love to lend a helping hand.   The Irish government should call on their skills, and know that they would do the right thing for the country.

I know times are hard in Ireland, but I for one will continue to make my annual trips with my family, and will continue to enjoy the best of the country.  It was much cheaper this summer for our Irish holidays, we noticed, and maybe next year a vacation will be even more reasonably priced.

That’s a good thing. Things had gotten out of hand in Ireland, price wise, so maybe now merchants will learn some hard lessons.  I look forward to seeing if that’s the case next summer.

In the meantime, good luck to all the Irish. Your history tells that you’ve overcome worse than this current crisis, and you’ll persevere once again.

Vincent Kelly
Providence, Rhode Island