Busted Flush

Bertie Bowl

Bring out your dead

The above was one of the posters in the previous Lisbon referendum campaign which invoked the support of the Republican dead for a NO vote. I was very surprised that the YES side let them get away with it, and I still don't understand this lapse in the YES campaign. This invocation is powerful stuff and it must surely strike a chord in the majority of those who were educated up to the 1980s at least. Why then did Fianna Fáil, the Republican Party, in particular, not respond in kind.

I remarked at the time that it was a pity the YES side did not include a similar approach in their postering. That they did not is surely an illustration of the nation's emerging ambiguity towards the 1916 Rising, and this, embarrassingly in the run up to the 100th anniversary in 2016.

When the whole rebel thing got serious after 1969, the IRA's anti-civilian bombing campaign put "constitutional" nationalists on the spot. They could no longer invoke the glorious armed struggle which led to (or just preceded) the foundation of the State without appearing to support the bombing campaign. And Fianna Fáil, the Republican Party, was badly split over the Arms Trial in 1970.

The result was that the IRA appropriated the Republican regalia, including the tricolour, for the most part, and the Wolfe Tones appropriated all the rebel songs, which up to then had been unthinkingly sung by one and all. Jack Charleton eventually clawed back the tricolour through the success of the Irish soccer team but the ballads are still floating around out there in a sort of Republican/IRA twilight.

I can only think that it was these ambiguities which prevented the YES side from attempting to equally claim the Republican dead to their cause, with possibly fatal results.

This time round the NO side have already put Pearse's head on the lamposts, but there is no sign, so far, that the YES side have learned the lesson.

I often wonder how well the YES side actually understand the fundamentals of the EU, at least as originally conceived. When Ireland joined, it was enough to know that the Common Agricultural Policy would break the British stranglehold on Irish agriculture and that industry would have access to a huge market, if it could get its act together. Then there was the Regional Fund, which we milked very successfully. Elections were won and lost on the size of the loot we could extract from those horrible guilt-ridden Germans.

Now we are about to become a net-contributor to the EU in cash terms and we have priced ourselves out of the market by our recent profligacy. Without these earlier tangible benefits, and in the absence of a general commitment to its aims, the EU is becoming a harder sell by the day.

The scare tactics of the NO side last time round are being matched by those of the YES side on this occasion: Ireland needs the EU. A humiliating come down from the hubris of the last round. We are safer in Europe. Safer from what? Our own self-destruction?

If the YES side want to hold their heads high and tackle their opponents head on, they could do worse than trot out their Republican dead, for starters at least.

All for Europe

This poster caught my eye the other day. I did a sort of a double take.

FOR EUROPE?
I had heard that one of the Libertas team had changed sides but this was really something. Caroline Simons has been an assertive spokesperson for Libertas right through the Lisbon campaign and beyond. Had she changed sides?

Then I realised I was looking at a Libertas poster. Then I remembered that Libertas were FOR EUROPE, as Declan Ganley never tired of telling us all through the last Lisbon campaign. They were for Europe but against Lisbon. Not necessarily an inconsistent position, I have to admit. I am for Europe and I was tempted to vote NO in the last Lisbon referendum as a reaction against the complacent arrogance of both our own and our European "leaders". Caroline's poster is in support of her candidacy for membership of the European Parliament in the forthcoming European elections.

Then I heard Naoise Nunn on the radio. He was the guy who had changed sides (and joined Fianna Fáil). He was now FOR LISBON. Pushing the NO campaign had been just a job, like working for Ganley (or now Fianna Fáil).

It's going to be a very confusing European election, and that before we even get withing smelling distance of a referendum.

UPDATE (21/5/2009)

This is the latest tarted up version. Subtle shift away from FOR EUROPE to HAD ENOUGH OF THAT SHOWER. Normally this would be taken as referring to the current national government. We have apparently progressed from a vote for Europe to a vote against the Government. Forget the local or European elections. What next?

Man the Lifeboats

Don't Bank on It

"The liquidator's report to the High Court said bluntly that the bank had been 'operated and run by the directors with scandalous disregard not only for the Companies Act but also for the Central Bank Act'. According to liquidator Paddy Shortall, possible offences included bribery, conspiracy, corrupt transactions, falsifying or destroying books, publishing fraudulent statements, making false returns to the Central Bank, concealment of property and obtaining credit by false pretences. On foot of his report the Garda Fraud Squad was called in but no further action was taken against Gallagher in this jurisdiction"

The Builders, pps 32/3

Sounds familiar, but it is not about Anglo Irish. This was Patrick Gallagher's Merchant Banking which collapsed in 1982, twenty six years ago.

And there has been no shortage of other implosions over the years, both in this country and abroad, which underlined the need for rigorous, conservative and cross-border supervision. ICI (1985), Savings and Loan crisis (1980/90s), BCCI (1991), Enron (2001), to name but a few.

But the country was becoming bewitched by the Celtic Tiger and it's hubris knew no bounds.

The Celtic Tiger, insofar as it represented genuine economic advancement, was the product of a number of sensible polices over previous decades, including investment in education, strict (albeit intermittent) control of the public finances, joining the EU, attraction of multi-national industries from abroad, and developing an indigenous entrepreneurial sector.

Unfortunately, the financial sector, or at least a large proportion of it along with property developers, lost the run of itself. It was subject to "light regulation" and was, inter alia, advancing megabucks to speculative developers and 100%+ mortgages to ordinary housebuyers. The state itself was becoming accustomed to a lavish income stream, much of it generated by excessive property values and ultimately dependent on mega-loans from abroad.

The country was firmly in hock to the bubble. The system could only continue to work as long as property values kept rising at a sufficient rate to keep householders in positive net equity and to sustain the enormous gambles being taken by the developers and the banks.

Now that the bubble has burst, the country is burdened with repayment of these loans at a time when "private" real estate values have tumbled and public sector income is massively reduced.

And the public sector is stuck with servicing a settlement pattern which has been effectively determined by a crowd of cute hoors rather than sensible long term planning. The Kenny Report (1973) made recommendations aimed at taking the corruption out of land zoning and ensuring that any increase in land values as a result of zoning accrued mainly to the community. These recommendations were sacrificed on the altar of the absolute rights of "private property" by successive governments hiding behind the constitution. It cannot speak well for our democratic system that one party (FF) has been in power for 80% of the last half century.

Some of these thoughts flashed through my mind the other day when I noticed the sign on the pillar of the headquarters of the Bank of Ireland in Baggot St. I wondered if, in its current straitened circumstances, the bank might ultimately be obliged to take down the sign and lease the space for the very activities it now prohibits.

God forbid.




Previous posts:
Blogging against Poverty Bloody bankers et al.
Blogging for the Environment Perverse incentives in the economic system.
Crock of Gold Pardon the somewhat optimistic conclusion!