Taoiseach under pressure - We need unity not an election

WHEN Brian Cowen became Taoiseach just 15 months ago there was, for a time at least, a sense of optimism that the new brush might sweep clean. There was a feeling that the staleness of the discredited, stultifying Ahern leadership might be replaced with something vigorous and uplifting.

There was even a momentary sense of possibility but then, dear boy, events intruded and the scale of the calamity facing us all became more apparent every day.

Events within and beyond his control presented Mr Cowen with challenges few of his predecessors ever imagined, much less faced.