Last week, the Irish Times headlined what has quickly become an iconic editorial on the financial bailout with WB Yeats's potent question – “Was it for this?” Less than a week later, as the scale – up to €100bn in loans to be finalized today – and long-term implications of the IMF, EU and UK rescue packages came into sharper focus on Monday, another hallowed phrase of Yeats seemed more in order – “Changed, changed utterly”. In no more than two years Ireland has gone from being the poster child of the fast growth, construction-driven, credit-fuelled fringe of the eurozone economy to becoming the embodiment of a live-now-pay-later bubble that has left the Irish financial sector insolvent, the eurozone under threat and forced the ordinary Irish man and woman to pick up the bill for the binge, said the Guardian in an editorial published Tuesday. Excerpts: Yesterday, to the gravity of its worsening financial plight and the collective shock to its self-esteem caused by the IMF and EU bailouts, Ireland was forced to add a full-on domestic political crisis. This was triggered by the decision of the junior government coalition partner to demand a general election. There is widespread public indignation at the false reassurances that Irish ministers were regurgitating last week, even while the EU and IMF bailiffs were going through the books. The Irish prime minister Brian Cowen's claims that Ireland was “fully funded” and that there was no “impending sense of crisis” have made him a lightning rod for public anger. The election, which will take place in the new year, after the financial package has been voted in the Dail, is set to be a defining event for modern Irish politics. It may see not only the predictable punishment of the Irish governing parties, Fianna F?il and the Greens, but perhaps also the historic eclipse of Fianna F?il and a party system framed by the events of 1921. __
