People in glasshouses - Cure disease not just the symptoms

IF all goes according to script the annual report of the Anglo Irish Bank will be published this afternoon. If it is anything like as incendiary as we have been led to expect, it might be a good idea to anticipate a few days of high dudgeon and outraged commentary.

It matters not a single Oireachtas envelope that this outrage may be justified or barely contained. It may not even matter a second Oireachtas envelope that the publication might confirm that an amoral clique of businessmen were not satisfied with the very best opportunities this State ever offered any of its citizens.

Even if they had confined themselves to dealings that observed decent banking rules, they could have become richer than more or less every Irish person who ever lived. Many of them are, but that was not good enough. They wanted much more and felt unconstrained by any sort of ethic as they pursued end-of-the-rainbow ambitions. By so doing they led us all into this sorry mess. Or so today’s received wisdom goes.