MICHAEL COLLINS would have empathised with the bravery and courage of the late minister for finance Brian Lenihan, who delivered the oration at the Béal na mBláth commemoration in west Cork not long before his death, those attending this year’s ceremony were told yesterday.
The late Fianna Fáil minister, who died in June aged 52, made history last August when he became the first figure in the party to deliver the keynote oration at the annual Collins commemoration.
Yesterday the oration was delivered by Dr Edward Walsh, the founding president of the University of Limerick. Dr Walsh said his predecessor as orator was “a man of courage, ability, energy and integrity”.
“Collins would have joined with us in mourning an untimely death. He would have recognised Lenihan’s unrelenting commit-ment to his public duties and to Ireland, while knowing his own chances of survival were slim, and most likely he would shortly die. Let us pause for a few moments in memory of two fine Irishmen who met untimely deaths: Brian Lenihan and Michael Collins.”
Speaking at the commemoration last year, Mr Lenihan called on all in public life to let the spirit of Michael Collins inspire them through the economic crisis.
Dr Walsh told the 1,000-plus people who attended yesterday that the dire crisis in which Ireland was ensnared, and the “opportunist way in which the strong took advantage of the weak last Christmas”, would certainly be on Collins’s mind were he with us today.
Dr Walsh claimed Collins would be anticipating the skirmishes that lie ahead and thinking of how best to secure bargaining chips that a small state might use in facing down major European powers.
He claimed that joining the euro in 1999 was a serious mistake.
“Ireland entered and lost control of the two vital monetary instruments: setting interest rates and setting currency exchange rates.
“Had Ireland remained outside the euro, its bankers would not have gained access to the euro zone’s vast and low-interest borrowing opportunities.
“Without the outlandish credit available within the euro zone, the building bubble, the resultant government tax windfalls and Ahern’s, McCreevy’s and Cowen’s spending splurge would have been impossible. The country would not now be in receivership.”
He said while Irish banks were guilty of foolish borrowing, the German and French banks lent recklessly and the European Central Bank failed to regulate that activity effectively.
“For Ireland there has not been a shared and equitable European solution. The banks, mainly German, which lent rashly, are receiving a 100 per cent bailout, not from those who borrowed, but from the Irish tax payer.
“Apart altogether from the unfairness of the imposed solution, it will not work, because it cannot.”