I’ve just read the most brutally honest, blunt and accurate assessment of how Ireland's economy went from being one of the strongest on the planet, to being weaker than that of Iraq, if that's possible.

The best-selling author Michael Lewis visited Ireland a while back and wrote the piece for the new edition of Vanity Fair, and it's absolutely imperative reading for anyone out there who ever wondered how Ireland went from being a poor nation to a rich nation, to a poor nation again, in a few short years.

The Irish election will be held in a couple of weeks from now and the next Taoiseach (prime minister) in waiting, Enda Kenny of the Fine-agler party is refusing to appear on a TV debate (with excuse after excuse), with the other contenders as the guy, truthfully, can't put two words together without stammering.

This doesn't really augur well for Ireland's chances of renegotiating the financial “deal” his predecessor Brian “Clowen” and his three ring circus agreed with the International Monetary Fund/EU, which in turn will keep Ireland under German/French rule for years to come.

Pearse, Connolly and the hundreds of thousands of Irishmen who gave their lives through the centuries for Ireland's freedom have to be twisting and turning in their graves at how it was all given back for pure unadulterated greed by the government, bankers, developers and speculators.

My heart goes out to the honest, hard working, Irishmen and women who had absolutely nothing to do with the shambles they now find themselves in, but their children and indeed even their grandchildren, will be left footing the bill for years and years to come.

Meanwhile, the cold hearted bastards who caused it all will disappear into the abyss with their big, fat untaxed pensions and chauffeur driven Mercedes cars, at the taxpayers’ expense for crimes committed.
    
Sean McPhillips
College Point, New York