Cuts leading to fatalism in countries used to helplessness

DURING the week a headline in an international business newspaper declared that the Irish were taking the austerity in the same way as they suffer a hangover – lying on a sofa moaning.

It is probably true even if the American writer was drawing on the stereotypical Irish image more than necessary.

Certainly the emotion in the demonstrations of Athens against the massive measures imposed on the Greeks is missing from any of the manifestations on the streets of Dublin.