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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Brian Cowen gets the blame but Irish people need to look in the mirror too

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Brian Cowen gets the blame but Irish people need to look in the mirror too

Posted on Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 05:49 PM

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Brian Cowen is not the only person responsible for the downfall of the Irish economy.

That will come as a surprise to many who have followed the Irish media over the past few months.

Reading the media you would think he personally ordered the collapse of the Celtic Tiger all on his own.

He has been vilified from pillar to post and now limps from office no doubt a deeply disappointed man.

But the Irish should really begin to look somewhere else for somebody to blame

Like looking in the mirror at themselves.

Brian Cowen did not come from outer space.

Neither did the financial crisis he inherited when he took office a little over two years ago.

The cozy cartel of corruption that built up in Ireland was fueled by essentially one party government.

For twenty two of the last 24 years, Fianna Fail has been in power. They were voted in time and again.

It had become obvious for decades that re-electing Fianna Fail in every election was having a corrosive impact on Irish politics

Back in the 1980s former Prime Minister Charles Haughey was deeply corrupt a fact that was suspected if not outright known by voters when they continued to re-elect him.

Planning scandals, pay offs, so called brown envelopes were a feauture of his time in office.

By the time of the Celtic Tiger a golden circle of cronies in business and politics was in place.

Prime Minster Bertie Ahern was clearly caught up in it all as well.

Several inquiries found a vast trove of evidence that secret deals were part and parcel of the way the government operated.

Yet voters continued to elect him and Fianna Fail won the last election in 2007 when there was widespread knowledge that corruption was rampant and banks were completely foolhardy in their behavior.

Still 44 per cent of the Irish electorate voted for Fianna Fail.

Brian Cowen inherited all of that.

Sure he was Minister for Finance and must share the blame.

He was personally honest but that hardly mattered as the system he inherited and served was deeply flawed to begin with and he had no reformer's zeal.

Now he is carrying the can for all that went before as well as his own sins.

But voters knew well that Fianna Fail for decades even were carrying on in a corrupt fashion and a charmed circle of insiders were benefiting greatly.

So they can blame themselves as well for all that has happened.

People get the government they deserve after all.

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sirpeter | Jan 24, 2011, 06:16 PM EST

Ajreaper..I suggest you do a little research before you comment..you dumb fcuk!!

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PolinDeB | Jan 24, 2011, 06:15 PM EST

But I still disagree that they are responsible for the debts of the banks - they already have paid a price in loss of their investments. They should not pay for privately created debt.

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PolinDeB | Jan 24, 2011, 06:13 PM EST

That is total true - even when we proved that the Tara planning permission was illogical and therefore most likely rigged.. people just said the others are just as bad.. Sadly the Greens proved them true... And that might be just happening again... this we must pass the Finance Bill smacks of politicians passing the buck for bad news rather than actually standing up for what is the right thing to do.. We could have another 4 years of ennui .... something Ireland can't afford because then those who created the celtic tiger, the Technology crowd will not come back...

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sirpeter | Jan 24, 2011, 06:13 PM EST

Ajreaper...For God Sake...Use your brain...100 puppets government over a period of time..sometimes 5 governments in the same country..fu*ck sake man..Yes Sadam Hussein in the past was seen by U.S. intelligence services as a bulwark of anti-communism in the 1960s and 1970.He was supported by the CIA. I'm not educating you anymore..Do your own research.

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Kells46 | Jan 24, 2011, 05:23 PM EST

I agree with you Niall 100%. You have hit it right on the nail. Irish people cannot be exempted from blame for the current situation there. The attitude in Ireland is and always has been, as long as I am okay, to hell with the rest. There has always been corruption in Irish politics and in the Fianna Fail party in particular, but who cared? Well now they do, but it is just a little too late, the party is well and truly over, so suck it up Irish people.

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Padraig | Jan 24, 2011, 04:35 PM EST

Niall sometimes your articles can be torn too pieces but no one can argue with this one. The same can be said of the states. Clinton is loved in Ireland and many other places but he wanted the banks to lower the standards for house loans. i think around 1998-9. he was the big gun behind legislation. ya it created a bubble that made him look great in the short run then 2001 hit. The ripple effect couldnt be stopped. We are all so interconnected now. The real fulls are voters for the last few years. just like you said!!

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Travellingman | Jan 24, 2011, 03:17 PM EST

i agree and take a hike you bunch of Gangsters, because it may turn out the IMF/ECB/EU are Bankrupt and they support an International consortium of insolvent deadbeat Banks.

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FastEddy | Jan 24, 2011, 02:49 PM EST

Blame just about every facet of Irish g'ment, not just the willing dupe at the top. When the IMF/EU/Big Banking consortium offers "candy, little girl?", the answer should have been "take a hike, you greedy taxsuckers!" ... What has killed your Celtic Tiger is and forever will be high tax rates, caused by that International Gang of 20 and the jealous EU perpetrators of ever bigger government.

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Travellingman | Jan 24, 2011, 02:31 PM EST

I come from the UK and its identical here…”Oh” they squeal “If it wasn’t for this or for that and for Margaret Thatcher and Ronnie Regan back in the 1980s than we wouldn’t be in this trouble now”, and I think RUBBISH, because if you read the 1979 Conservative Party Manifesto, than its fairly easy to distinguish that EVERYTHING was largely based on trust and the free markets, AND NOT MISTREATMENT. However instead what have we learnt to do? NOTHING BUT ABUSING EACH OTHER….We have not only learnt to abuse the money supply, the credit system, the housing markets but also to destroy and eradicate one another’s lives, including our children….I should know because I fell victim to this in March 1999, just as the housing Bubble of all monsters began to inflate and I wondered at the time what it is was that encouraged this destruction, which was all owing to my Ex and as a result our Business went immediately into freefall, wiping the lot out….So I agree, its not Mr. Cowen because all the people need to do is say “No, I am not going to do that”

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GeorgeDillon | Jan 24, 2011, 12:26 PM EST

I agree with O'Dowd. Fianna Fail have been elected ad nauseam by Irish people, not by people in Borneo or Bolivia. And Irish people have, when sufficient pressure is put on them, endorsed the European Union role in the country and signed away their independence. They deserve all they get.

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GeorgeDillon | Jan 24, 2011, 12:23 PM EST

Ajreaper: Well corrected--there is no limit to the trash that sirpeter posts.

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RobinOCork | Jan 24, 2011, 11:59 AM EST

We know it's not the author's intent, but let's not single out the Irish for this sad, human trait. Show me a government free of brown envelopes, back-room deals, and brothers-in-law promoted far beyond their IQ, and I'll ask how you liked the rest of the movie.

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seanskelligs | Jan 24, 2011, 11:58 AM EST

You are completely off the wall. Cowan did not inherit the crisis when he took office two years ago-he was minister for finance for the previous three years too. The crisis was not caused by Fianna Fail or the Government. It was caused by the reckless bank lending. Where Fianna Fail are culpable is that their Financial Regulator was asleep on the job and did not raise alarm bells. Where the really fell down on the job was that having learned of the problem every single decision they made since then was incompetent. They gave a blanket bank guarantee which was to be self financing....but has cost the country $150 billion=-three times the annual GDP. Thats where the blame lies. The people voted for people who convinced them they were competent-a complete con job. Lay the blame where it rightly rests firstly the bankers and secondly the Government

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offalymike | Jan 24, 2011, 10:14 AM EST

it seems like mr o dowd was reading my mind when he wrote this article.

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Ajreaper | Jan 24, 2011, 09:26 AM EST

LOL, Sirpeter there are less then 200 countries in the world and your claim is the U.S. installed governments in more then half the countries in the world? The CIA placed Sadam in power? How do you expect to be taken even a little seriously with silly comments such as that? If people are repeatedly reelected in spite of clear issues with their integrity then the blame is shared by all who voted for them.

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