Ireland went mad in the sweetie shop

I suppose it is inevitable that Ireland will soon be blaming their financial 'difficulties' on the potato famine. There has been mention of cheese, but so far, not a word about potatoes. Ireland joined the dreaded euro club to become rich rich rich, and it did, for a while. The trouble is that the people went mad, and overspent in the sweetie shop. The beautiful Irish countryside became pock marked with dreary little houses, house prices went up and up and up. Cash was king for a while, and behind the scenes the banks were weaving their sorcery egged on by an ignorant greedy government. For several weeks the Irish government has been denying even the slightest possibility of asking the European Union for a loan. Now the die is cast and the final bailout could be as high as £85billion. Britain's contribution will be c£6 - £7.5 billion even though we are deep in debt ourselves. Our banks are inextricably linked with Irish banks, and Ireland is our top trading neighbour so it is obviously in our interest to put our best foot forward and help them. Ireland is totally against raising its rate of corporation tax from 12.5% (ours is currently 28%), but Merkel and Sarkozy are determined that Ireland should be forced to do this as part of the European loan deal. The German foot is now bearing down on the Irish throat, and the Irish have only themselves to blame.