Irish rebels fought for independence during the First World War, boasting that serves "neither King nor Kaiser." Ireland may now have to do exactly that to qualify for a bailout funded in part by Britain and Germany.
The Prime Minister, Brian Cowen, leans toward accepting a rescue package that could endanger the country's policies with low taxes and put the voters on the hook to repay loans the central bank said it may be worth "tens of thousands of millions "of euros. For critics of Cowen Fianna Fail party, which governed Spain through his decade-long boom, national pride is at stake.
Cowen has "squandered" the independence of a "German rescue plan with a few shillings from the sympathy of the British foreign minister," said the Irish Times newspaper yesterday. The government should "be ashamed that Fianna Fail should be to cede the sovereignty," said Michael Noonan, a spokesman for the funding for the Fine Gael, the main opposition party.
European Union officials and the International Monetary Fund are in Dublin to assess the books of the country's banks, whose collapse went hand in hand with the collapse of the housing market. The Irish government estimates that rescue the financial services industry can only cost as much as 50 billion euros ($ 68,000,000,000).
"As an Irishman who has lived his entire life in the Irish Free State, is painful to think that we will surrender our sovereignty," said Bill Phelan, 77, who worked for the state-owned Electricity Supply Board before his retirement. "I regret that all they have worked and saved to be crumbling under my feet. I worry about my children."
"Good Neighbor"
Ireland would draw on a pool of 750 billion euros financed by Germany and other euro members should seek assistance. While Britain is not part of the currency bloc, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, says he is willing to contribute to a package to be a "good neighbor."
Cowen said that Ireland has no reason to feel "embarrassed or humiliated." "No doubt the loss of the sovereignty of Ireland," he told reporters yesterday in Dublin.
The government has said it may take help to protect the euro. Ireland may be the "zone of attack," said Finance Minister Brian Lenihan told reporters in Brussels on 16 November after a meeting of their counterparts in the euro region.
Surveys
The request for external assistance are acutely felt in a country that became independent in 1922 after a series of failed uprisings against the British Empire. The most famous came in 1916 at the height of the First World War, when Republicans hung a banner of Liberty Hall in Dublin, reading: "We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland."
The slogan was a response to critics who argue that the separatist movement undermined the efforts of Britain's war against the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Although the revolt was suppressed 1916, the surviving leaders then mounted another armed campaign that led to a 1921 treaty with Britain granted partial independence.
The country then fell into a civil war, Fianna Fail's predecessors, arguing that the solution was a betrayal. More than eight decades later, some people in the party in Cowen echo the idea of selling.
"This is our worst day and the lowest of the day," said Ned O'Keeffe, a Fianna Fail lawmaker, said in an interview with RTE radio. "We are a sovereign people and the blood has been lost in it. It is sad that the chancellor of the UK now is offering us money. I never thought I'd see this."
Keep fighting
Cowen government may nevertheless continue to fight to prove you have some control over their economic policies.
Conversations can turn to 12.5 percent of Ireland rate of corporation tax, which attracted companies like Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to Ireland in the 1990's and helped transform the country into a destination for foreign investment.
Austrian Finance Minister Josef Proell November 17, said he will want to speak Irish corporation tax as part of any rescue package. A day earlier, he warned Greece that could retain part of Austria to rescue the country agreed in May if the government of Athens does not meet financial targets.
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said on November 11th visit to Dublin that Ireland will not continue as "low tax" country. Ireland's Trade Minister Batt O'Keeffe, said yesterday the country's commitment to maintain the corporate tax rate is not "negotiated."
"It would be the final battle, but I expect Ireland to stand firm and defend corporate taxes," said Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Bloxham Stockbrokers in Dublin. "They have to be dragged kicking and screaming."
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