There's one t in prat Jim, but bear with me, there is a reason for my pedantry.

We have a global finance structure in the world, which through increased communications terchnology, internet etc, has shrunk the world to the effect that the beat of a butterfly in China can cause the drains to block in Peru or whatever the ruddy quote is.

Sorry, but all this talk about some historical struggle, about how The UK shafted its neighbour for so long, about Trevellion and his policies, about black and tans, about pikesmen in 1798, about holes appearing in the wall of a post office, about signing the book of condolence at the German embassy in 1945, about influx of EU restructuring money throughout the '90s and beyond, about guinness, about .....................

It is all there, I grant you.

But it has nothing whatsoever to do with the naivety of the Irish government in stoking an overheated economy whilst pissing off EU partners with its tax laws.

That, not poetic history is the cause of the present problem.