Madam, – That great Irish Republican, Brendan Behan, once stated back in the 1950s that such was the sorry state of the state at that time that “We should hand ourselves back to Great Britain and to apologise for our condition”.
The man was only speaking in half-jest. Today’s mess is surely 100 times worse than the mess experienced in 1950s. Alas, nobody would touch us now.
I suppose that is what we mean by becoming “independent”. – Yours, etc,