This is Fintan Otoole again. We met him on 22 November with a brilliant piece. Now he's doing the sums and deciding that they don't add up. This charade has gone on long enough, he says. It is killing Ireland, but it is also killing the EU.

Rhetoric then takes over: "Do its leaders really expect us all to vote to give them more powers when they’re only interested in using them to take back what they’ve given us? We may be the stupidest mercenaries of all time, but even our folly has its limits".

Doncha just love this man.

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Yes I do. I first came across him with this - "Ship of Fools" - http://www.faber.co.uk/work/ship-of-fools/9780571260751/

Mr O'Toole is well-known as a rabid lefty here in Ireland, but I suppose when even he is questioning Ireland's lily-livered kow-towing to Brussels, that must be a good sign. It probably goes back to one of your previous points, Dr North, about this not being about Right vs Left, but Up vs Down.
And by the way, the Irish Times has been leading the charge on de-carbonisation, with endless editorials and opinion pieces about the supposed dangers of AGW. They also famously had an editorial after Lisbon Mk 1 was rejected, which said something like "have the Irish people lost their minds". They have long since crossed the line between reporting the news and driving it. They seem themselves as a 'player'. So beware!

Yes, but the irony had not escaped me. When we get the Irish Times proferring anti-EU propaganda, things have really changed.

That the Irish have put up with what has been done to them, I find beyond comprehension.

Are they so brainwashed by supposed EU munificence, that can't tell they are being gang raped 24/7......truly bizarre.

It's complicated. There are vast numbers of gobshites in Ireland, socialists, marxists, eco-nutters. If anyone raises their head above the parapet, there's always a lynch mob of cranks and liberals ready to do them down. The media is predominately socialist and pro-europe. The civil service (the enemy within?) are also more than happy to do Brussels' bidding. There was a recent case where some councillor said that he was sick of dealing with nigerians because they are always so rude and just looking for handouts. He's been hounded out of office, and been made an example of in the Irish Times and elsewhere. He's hardly a bloody racist - he didn't say whites were the supreme race or anything. So you have these endless over-reactions to stuff that really doesn't matter, while the Big Lies receive virtually no comment - AGW, "Ireland's place is in the heart of Europe" etc. Also look at how the Irish dealt with World War 2, and the thousands of Irish that joined the british army - they were treated as pariahs when they came back, if they came back. So, to add to my categorizations of gobshites, you can also add the "800-years of British rule" cranks. They will bring this up at every available opportunity, like an Irish version of Godwin's law.
The attitude to the EU is definitely changing. There's probably an element of biding our time, hoping if the Greeks pull out, we might join them. The government doesn't want to be the first to leave the euro, but then again the present government are extreme europhiles. We really need the emergence of a credible right-wing party who are prepared to tell Europe to stick their bailout where the sun doesn't shine, and threaten to bring down the roof on the whole thing. I live in hope.