Posted by Gallup on September 09, 2002 at 19:40:20:

In Reply to: Re: Lets not confuse the issue here posted by Mogli on September 09, 2002 at 19:22:39:

Interesting points and probably not too far off the mark.

Ireland was all fired up in the 60s very modern outward looking etc. and so joining the EEC was the obvious logical next step. If we hadn't done that would the oil crisis of 1974 hammered the country altogether?

Granted the 1977 experiment in economics under the tutelage of that famous economics professor Martin O'Donoghue did for us anyway - Europe or not - a disaster that took us almost 20 years to recover from. We are still paying back those loans and local government never recovered. In the late 70s and early 80s you could not get a mortgage for love or money regardless almost of your ability to repay.

My feeling is that in the 1960s honesty was still the norm in politics and business. Somewhere in the 1970s greed and use of the planning system to line pockets caught on and became the norm in the corridors of power. I think it would have been much worse without Europe checking up every so often on where money was being spent and at least attempting to keep tabs on things so that not too much at least of European money was nabbed by greedy politicians and officials. The exception being sheep farmers who as we found out after the Cooley cull were discovered to be doing exactly what people suspected.

78% of respondents to today's poll say Europe is good for Ireland. I reckon that's a pretty realistic assessment. I am just wondering though what the rest think Ireland would be like now if we hadn't joined Europe? Does the above sound right?

Follow Ups:

• Re: Lets not confuse the issue here Euroman 23:00:10 11/09/02 (0)
• Re: Lets not confuse the issue here Mike 23:13:46 09/09/02 (1)
  • Re: Lets not confuse the issue here PHILLO 10:05:02 10/09/02 (0)

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