If last Monday’s Freefall documentary on RTÉ proved anything, it was that when Eamon Gilmore accused the Taoiseach earlier this year of economic treason, he was talking not just metaphorically, hyperbolically or provocatively, but literally and truthfully as well. The revelation that Cowen and his increasingly ineffectual Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan agreed to guarantee the debts of Anglo Irish Bank when they had to have known that it was insolvent was as shocking a revelation as has come out about Fianna Fáil’s role in creating, sustaining and deepening the economic collapse. Cowen claims he didn’t know of Anglo’s insolvency, something Gilmore says is inconceivable. In any event, the Taoiseach’s denial is hardly reassuring. He stands accused either of a recklessness bordering on betrayal of Irish citizens or staggering ignorance of what was going on in the country’s banking system. Neither is a pretty picture.

It was fitting that Freefall should appear in a week when the problems of Anglo, the consequences of the decision to guarantee it, and the travails of the banks generally moved us ever closer to bankruptcy, something which seems more likely than not at this juncture, if not yet inevitable. The increase to around 6% in the interest rate Ireland pays on its long-term borrowings is another sign of how precarious our finances have become, and how we are perceived by the people lending us the money. The figure is almost 4% more than Germany is paying and, incidentally, about 3% more than we’d have to pay if we were to throw ourselves at the mercy of the EU, as the Greeks have done.

Cowen’s optimism continues, though. “Ireland is regarded as having a government that is implementing the plans it has agreed and it is committed to the further implementation of them,” he says. This is only one-tenth of the story. We are indeed implementing some plans – though many think them wrongheaded – and occasionally a foreign newspaper will pat us on the head for doing so. As a people, we have been remarkably patient, docile even, confining our protests to throwing shoes at war criminals, or occasionally gathering outside an endangered hospital to protest its closure.

This is partly because we know that an election, and revenge, is imminent and partly because of the threat implicit in the government’s banking policy: if we make those people who lent recklessly to Irish banks – particularly Anglo – accept their losses like the good capitalists they claim to be, the rates Ireland is charged to borrow money will jump savagely. As a people, we accepted this assurance from the likes of Cowen and Lenihan, and did nothing to protest, lest we upset either the apple cart or the money markets. And what happened? We gave everything we were asked, accepted unimaginable pain, and still we are charged the savage rates, which are fast becoming unmanageable.

It feels like we are reaching some kind of endgame, and that the ultimate consequences of the economic mismanagement of the Bertie Ahern years can no longer be put off. History might well conclude that our banking problems were so huge that they were never likely to be soluble by ourselves alone, and that Cowen and Lenihan deserve commendation for at least trying to grapple with the enormity of what faced them. That will be the benign view, one that might actually catch on if they do the right thing from now on.

At this point in the downturn, there’s probably no longer any point arguing over what the government might have done during the boom, and what they ought to have done two years ago when the scale of our problems became apparent. They went a particular way, which has taken us to the point where we have almost run out of options, and are in a position where we can no longer continue without outside help. Lenihan says he has no intention of asking for cash from the €750bn EU stabilisation fund, but he told us once upon a time that bailing out Anglo Irish would the cheapest bank bailout in the world. His credibility has been damaged by his performance and by his litany of incorrect predictions and statements.

There is no reason to believe him when he says help from the EU fund is not on the agenda, and indeed at this point, we should be urging him to seek just that. The alternative is the International Monetary Fund. He and his Taoiseach need to admit that the game is up and we need help from abroad. It’s the correct – even the patriotic – thing to do.

The boy Rooney: Still a bit too ‘boy’ to be a man

In all the fuss about Wayne Rooney’s expensive trysts with the wonderfully, if inaccurately, nicknamed JuicyJeni, nobody has looked at the role of his manager at Manchester Utd, Alex Ferguson. Ferguson has stated on many occasions that he thinks players should get married young because it settles them down and keeps them out of pubs and clubs in the early hours of the morning. That this is ridiculous advice should have been apparent even before this latest scandal.

Nobody, particularly young men with little emotional intelligence, should get married as young as Rooney did two years ago when he was just 22. Instead of embracing its joys and challenges, many of them perceive marriage as a prison, from which they immediately try to escape. Ferguson, and other managers who feel similarly, should let their young players mature at their own pace instead of putting them under intense pressure to grow up before they’re ready.

ddoyle@tribune.ie