Luck of the Irish

Given the Irish bailout and the wrecked economy Ireland now faces, it's plain to see that if you had the luck of the Irish . . . you'd wish you were English instead. Why not? The English are among Ireland's biggest creditors now! Them and the European Union.

The Irish nation had been struggling to build an solid Irish state after receiving independence in 1922, following nine hundred years of occupation. After years of poverty and misery, Ireland seemed to have entered modernity with a prosperous middle class and a dynamic economy. It's all crashed down. I have no doubt in Ireland's ability to recover, but it's going to take a long time, of course. The country's attempt to achieve genuine independence has been severely compromised by this financial crisis, as it has always had great difficulty in achieving economic freedom to complement its political freedom. And it went through nine centuries of genocide, land confiscation, and religious oppression at the hands of an occupying power from which it has only begun to recover.

Right now, Enda Kenny, Ireland's new prime minister, is trying to get the European Union to lower the interest rate on money the country has borrowed but resisting EU demands to raise its corporate tax rate, fearing further disincentives for business to invest in the country. This crisis makes this St. Patrick's Day more bittersweet than previous ones. But again, I have hope. That's what the Irish have lived on for years.

To understand the Irish psyche, consider what the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, just after President Kennedy was assassinated. "I don't think there's any point in being Irish if you know the world is going to break your heart eventually."

But the Irish keep coming back to try again.

Happy St. Patrick's Day. :-)