Sir, – Of all the masses of verbiage about our precipitous fall from the heights of the boom to the lows of the bailout, Natasha Abdul Aziz's article stands out as a gem ("It was great while it lasted, Ireland, but it's time to say goodbye", Opinion, December 23rd).
She captures magnificently the atmosphere of the boom. The “showy” offices and houses, the “flash suits and fancy cars”, the “reckless abandon” were all so “intoxicating”.
But then “the bottom fell out of our world” and we became “mean”, “petty” and “selfish”. We started to say that it was all the fault of the mostly foreign, other fella.
However, at the end of it all, she thinks that a “glimmer of hope is still there”.
It takes an outsider to see what the rest of us, who are involved in the grim day-to-day details, cannot see.
What puzzles me is why enough of those, who were in a position to know about the dangers of what was happening during the boom and not be intoxicated by it, did not become mean, petty and selfish on behalf of us all and blow the whistle on the reckless abandon. – Yours, etc,
ANTHONY LEAVY,
Shielmartin Drive,
Sutton, Dublin 13.