True but the loan was a loan.

I doubt I could raise a mortgage and then tell Barclays that as they funded the carpet baggers that ripped off and got their hands on my (I think) great great great Grandfather's farm, that they can bugger off.

Ireland is a modern country and part of The EU. If they spent more than they had, and let me tell you that when I sold my house in Blackrock in 2003, I knew then the Irish economy couldn't handle itself, then as a sovereign country they had to address it. My comment was that for once, we ensured the British tax payer wasn't suffering for their rash handling. We need to take lessons from the yanks and use a Marshall Plan approach. Or would if we has a government that could stoke its own economy but that's another story.

Still, the '90s was a good time for those of us flogging construction plant into Ireland.