Briefings
The Irish crisis
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Ireland
Irish election, a one way street
23 February 2011The Irish Times Dublin -
10 February 2011PresseuropThe Irish Times
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Debt crisis
Irish budget, the torture never stops
8 December 2010PresseuropIrish Independent -
Debt crisis
Ireland – Germany’s paradise lost
7 December 20101Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Eurozone crisis
The banks will chip in… a bit
29 November 20101Presseurop -
Eurozone crisis
Ireland bitter about €85 billion plan
29 November 20101PresseuropIrish Independent -
23 November 2010PresseuropIrish Independent
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Irish Crisis
The bitter taste of bailout
22 November 20101Presseurop -
Eurozone crisis
What now for Ireland?
22 November 20101Irish Independent Dublin -
Editorial
It’s TINA, stupid
19 November 20102Presseurop -
Ireland
IMF/EU Men in Black have a face
19 November 2010PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Irish crisis
EU & IMF's men in black arrive in Dublin
18 November 20102PresseuropEUobserver.com -
Eurozone crisis
Let them go bust
17 November 20101Der Standard Vienna -
Irish Crisis
And what about democracy?
17 November 2010PresseuropThe Wall Street Journal Europe -
Eurozone crisis
Bail out Ireland, but not its elites
16 November 20102The Irish Times Dublin -
Eurozone crisis
Ireland might be only the beginning…
16 November 2010PresseuropPresseurop -
Eurozone crisis
The bailout that isn’t a bailout
15 November 2010PresseuropIrish Independent -
Debt crisis
All hope lost on the good ship Euro?
12 November 20103Presseurop -
Debt crisis
Spanish fears amidst Irish black humour
11 November 2010PresseuropEl País -
Ireland
Let them eat cheese
8 November 2010PresseuropIrish Independent -
Austerity
Has Ireland awoken?
4 November 2010PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Banks
The Irish tragedy
1 October 20103The Guardian London -
30 September 2010PresseuropIrish Independent
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Recession
Has Ireland entered the double dip?
24 September 2010PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Economic crisis
The Irish contagion?
23 September 2010Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Economic crisis
Irish bond sale, Irish exodus
22 September 2010PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Debt
Return of the PIG
10 September 20101PresseuropHandelsblatt -
Economic crisis
Has the run on Ireland begun?
8 September 2010PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Economic crisis
Zombie bank pushes Ireland to brink
1 September 2010PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Economic crisis
Is Ireland looking into the abyss?
21 July 2010PresseuropIrish Independent -
Emigration
120,000 to leave austerity Ireland
14 July 2010PresseuropThe Irish Times -
1 July 2010PresseuropThe Irish Times
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17 May 2010Irish Independent Dublin
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Ireland
Greece threatens “our” recovery
6 May 2010PresseuropIrish Independent -
Ireland
The big NAMA gamble begins
30 March 2010PresseuropIrish Examiner -
GREEK CRISIS
EU dithering bad for PIGS
23 March 2010PresseuropABC -
Economy
No appetite for austerity
18 March 20102International Herald Tribune Paris -
Crisis
PIGS trying to get wings
4 February 20107Presseurop -
Economic crisis
Cheerio to the euro?
26 January 2010Presseurop -
Ireland
Land of spivs and speculators
18 January 20102New Statesman London -
Budget 2010
Ireland can drink to forget
9 December 2009PresseuropIrish Independent -
Ireland
The ten plagues of Erin
30 November 2009Irish Independent Dublin -
12 November 2009PresseuropThe Irish Times
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Ireland-Iceland
Two islands in the same boat
7 August 2009Le Monde Paris -
Economic Crisis
Irish style state socialism
31 July 2009PresseuropIrish Independent
The Irish may be furious over the EU/IMF bailout, massive budget cuts, and the fact that billions of public money are still being poured into its toxic banks, but it is nevertheless voting in a new government that will see through the measures taken by its predecessor, writes columnist Fintan O’Toole. 
Ireland, the poor, pure island, was a place Germans longed for, at least ever since Heinrich Böll. Till the country succumbed to turbo-capitalism, dealing another body blow to the euro and dashing the German dream of a better world, laments Der Spiegel. 
In addition to putting together a rescue package for Ireland, eurozone leaders have decided to rope the private sector into contributing to sovereign bailouts from 2013. A step in the right direction, lauds the press, but the crisis isn’t over yet.
Between 80 and 100 billion euros. We don’t know yet how much aid Ireland, the EU and IMF agreed on 21 November. But the question is: was it the right call? Reactions from the Corriere della Sera and Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. 
After a week of denial, the Irish government finally admitted on 21 November that it has requested a formal bailout from the EU/IMF. A humiliating failure, argues the Irish Independent leader, but also a chance to recover national pride and confidence. 
Greece is building new mountains of debt. Ireland is expecting to go to the wall. Europe’s taxpayers fear they’ll have to club together again for another bailout. Things can’t go on like this, fumes Der Standard. Investors have got to pay their fair share of state and bank bailouts. 
With the Irish debt crisis top of the agenda as finance ministers gather in Brussels, Irish columnist Fintan O’Toole warns that a bailout for the economically crippled country cannot work without a shake-up of its political institutions. 
Not since the Greek crisis in the spring of this year has one country appeared so vulnerable to negative market sentiment. With an Irish bailout an increasingly likely prospect, the European press worries about the consequences for other members of the EU. 
With unemployment, emigration and bond yields soaring, Ireland learned on September 30 that the bill for the bailout of its toxic banks is set to reach €50 billion – an incredible 32% of national income. Is the former Celtic Tiger on the brink of meltdown? worries the Guardian. 
Will Ireland hamstring Europe’s economic recovery? Fingers are wagging away in Brussels, says the Süddeutsche Zeitung: the country had better retrench on the double. And yet for years it was Brussels that peddled the insane idea of growth at any price. 
Increasingly massive bail-outs of first Greece, then the eurozone, are doing little to calm jittery world markets. The problem, argues Irish economist David McWilliams, is that nations have hitched their destiny to a fragile banking system at the expense of their citizens. 
From Greece to Ireland, the EU is encouraging members states to imposing painful cuts in public spending. But a growing number of critics are criticising a “cult of austerity” that threatens to push Europe further into recession. 
The four weakest countries in the eurozone – Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, whose initials form the acronym PIGS – are making efforts to stabilise their economic situation. They may be going about it in different ways, but the European press reckons that they are all prey to the same uncertainties. 
The financial hardships experienced by countries like Greece and Ireland raise the issue of their possible exclusion from the Eurozone. But opinions on the feasibility of such an outcome are mixed. 
Worst-afflicted of EU states by the global current crisis, Ireland of the Celtic Tiger years seems an all too distant memory. Rob Brown warns that Dublin’s slash and burn budgets that reduce public spending to keep international finance sweet could lead not just to economic, but also social, meltdown. 
Deep recession, nationwide strikes, elimination from the World Cup and now massive flooding across the country – things could hardly get worse in Ireland. Pat Fitzpatrick in the Irish Independent wonders whether God is making a point. 
Iceland has just voted to apply for EU membership, but as enlargement is contingent on ratification of the Lisbon treaty, Iceland's fate is in Ireland's hands this October 2 as it goes to the polls for a second time to vote on the troubled text. Both islands have much in common, argues Le Monde, while their approach to Europe differs somewhat. 
