Ireland has missed a glorious chance on Greece

As the Greek tragedy rumbles on France has said it will keep up efforts to reach a deal. France has also maintained that the biggest critics of Greece are the other smaller countries. This brings Ireland into the spotlight. Has the government really been politically clever in how it has handled the Greek crisis? Ireland has a strong reputation in Europe. At several junctures in the history of the EU it is Ireland that has helped to bring people around …

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Is the Greek crisis running an important political counterfactual on Ireland’s ‘nightmare bailout’?

I have to say that I take a rather different view from Paul on Ireland and the current phase of the Eurocrisis. Like all wicked problems, it is one replete with all sorts of layers and the Grexit issue is only one in a long line of thorny issues that will have to be dealt with. If there is a value in the comparison with Thatcher it might be between Tspiras and Arthur Scargill. You cannot fail to sympathise with the …

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…an Irish solution to an Irish (sic) problem…

Sporting the cuddly-ish name of the ‘Troika’, the IMF, ECB and European Commission were in Dublin  making sure that taxpayers in Ireland pay for the socialised debts of, amongst others, German and French banks who made poorly judged loans to Irish banks. Troika frontman, of sorts, Ajai Chopra, gave his approval of the current arrangements. It represents an Irish solution to an Irish problem and it enjoys our support. If Mr Chopra isn’t taking the proverbial, his Troika colleague Istvan Szekely (EC director …

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