Briefings
La crise irlandaise
On Presseurop
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Ireland: Irish election, a one way street
23 February 201137 The Irish Times Dublin -
Ireland: €10 billion more for zombie banks
10 February 2011PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Debt crisis: Irish budget, the torture never stops
8 December 2010PresseuropIrish Independent -
Debt crisis: Ireland - Germany’s paradise lost
7 December 2010164 1 Der Spiegel Hamburg -
Eurozone crisis: The banks will chip in… a bit
29 November 201040 1 Presseurop -
Eurozone crisis: Ireland bitter about €85 billion plan
29 November 20101PresseuropIrish Independent -
Ireland: After the bailout, Cowen for the drop
23 November 2010PresseuropIrish Independent -
Irish Crisis: The bitter taste of bailout
22 November 201074 1 Presseurop -
Eurozone crisis: What now for Ireland?
22 November 201027 1 Irish Independent Dublin -
Editorial: It’s TINA, stupid
19 November 2010130 2Presseurop -
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 2010112 1 Der Standard Vienna -
Irish Crisis: And what about democracy?
17 November 201024PresseuropThe Wall Street Journal Europe -
Eurozone crisis: Bail out Ireland, but not its elites
16 November 201065 2 The Irish Times Dublin -
Eurozone crisis: Ireland might be only the beginning…
16 November 201034PresseuropPresseurop -
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 2010125 3 Presseurop -
Debt crisis: Spanish fears amidst Irish black humour
11 November 201021PresseuropEl País -
Ireland: Let them eat cheese
8 November 201057PresseuropIrish Independent -
Austerity: Has Ireland awoken?
4 November 2010PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Banks: The Irish tragedy
1 October 2010105 3 The Guardian London -
Banks: Ireland wakes to €34 billion black hole
30 September 2010PresseuropIrish Independent -
Recession: Has Ireland entered the double dip?
24 September 2010PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Economic crisis: The Irish contagion?
23 September 201030 Süddeutsche 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 -
Ireland: Recession over, as unemployment soars
1 July 2010PresseuropThe Irish Times -
Banks: Bailouts are eating Europe
17 May 201026 Irish Independent Dublin -
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 201021 2 International Herald Tribune Paris -
Crisis: PIGS trying to get wings
4 February 201037 7 Presseurop -
Economic crisis: Cheerio to the euro?
26 January 2010Presseurop -
Ireland: Land of spivs and speculators
18 January 201013 2 New Statesman London -
Budget 2010: Ireland can drink to forget
9 December 2009PresseuropIrish Independent -
Ireland: The ten plagues of Erin
30 November 2009Irish Independent Dublin -
Ireland: Cowen stands by budget “adjustments”
12 November 2009PresseuropThe Irish Times -
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. 
