Don’t blame it all on Cromwell

TRANSPORT Minister Noel Dempsey made a great speech to his party’s árd fheis last weekend. Like those hard-hitting Meath footballers of some years back his tackle is a bit behind the referee’s back, though.

He roundly condemned those bankers who have ruined our nation, accusing them of doing more damage than anyone since Cromwell.

Since Cromwell, Noel? What about Dev’s Civil War that nearly put an end to our fledging State, the same man’s Economic War with Britain, the Second World War, the near collapse of the State in the 1950s only to be rescued by TK Whitaker, or the damage that the Provo campaign did to our nation with 30 years of bloodshed and the creation of an economic wasteland.

And don’t label all banks as the same in the one breath. And, Noel, what about certain politicians, apart from those with their paws in the greasy till, who fuelled the property bubble with outrageous borrowing in partying time, trawled the world inviting foreign workers to come here and created a commuter jungle of sprawling estates which you must have seen every day through your darkened state car window on your way to work from Meath.

Now we all have to cough up with property and increased income tax... not the light at the end of the tunnel, but a train hurtling towards us. Garret FitzGerald and Peter Sutherland act as a sort of medieval John the Baptist.

A little “mea maxima culpa” or pointing the finger inwards, Noel, might not be out of place, as when you point the index finger at the banks, four are pointing inwards.

Brendan Cafferty

Creggs Road

Ballina

Co Mayo