Losing more and more of national self-respect

In a way, I miss Brian Cowen, or more accurately, the Cowen years.

You see, back then, in the days of wine and roses, we really thought we were something.

Now, we are sobering up to the awful truth we have lived with for centuries; that we are servile also-rans hanging on to the rocky outcrop at the end of the garden of the house of Europe.

What a poxy state of being. I sometimes envy the Emmets and Tones, the Connollys and Collins of our past; at least they could see their enemy and take a proper shot at them in the hope of levelling the playing field.

My enemy, the almighty bondholders that control our futures and stamp on our present, are invisible men.

Pope John Paul II once wrote that the greatest challenge facing modern society wasn’t overt evil, but rather moral ambiguity.

Our collective ambiguity is more that pathetic. If we don’t shake off the general anaesthetic being fed to us by our political establishment, both in Europe and their local representatives, along with the backroom billionaires they serve, we will slide into poverty, the most insidious element of which is the inability to resist anymore, as we lose more and more people, confidence, bargaining power and national self-respect.

I don’t really miss Brian Cowen. But I do so miss Tone, Emmet, Connolly and Collins.

Declan Doyle

Lisdowney

Kilkenny