Hello Roy, goodbye troika — perhaps we’ve turned the corner

IS IT just me, or do you have a sense that we’re turning a corner? That, as a nation, we’re beginning to have reasons to be proud? That maybe, just maybe, we can make it after all?

A number of things happened in the last few days that I believe give us reason to begin to hope again. The first was on Thursday, when the Taoiseach and Tánaiste told the Dáil that we were going to leave the troika and the infamous bailout behind.

I can still remember how I felt when the last government, after weeks of prevaricating and outright denial, finally admitted that they had done a deal to bring the troika to Ireland, and had handed over the management of our affairs to a third party. It was done by stealth, in the dead of night, without any proper discussion. And that was after months of political and economic chaos, that started with a bank guarantee decided while the majority of the Cabinet was asleep in bed.