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.