As I am now effectively an ex patriot, one of the thousands of Irish people who jumped ship when the going got tough, I realise that there is no turning back. Having escaped over a year ago, I have no choice but to keep running. Despite the fact that I have not been ''living and breathing'' the Irish recession, I have kept a close eye on events from afar. I have been horrified to read daily newspaper articles that depict in brutal detail the melt down of a country that had such promise. The recent visit from the officials of the IMF is a bitter pill that will take some time to digest as will the shame and embarassment of being a native of a country that simply cant look after itself.

As with any country in the depths of a recession, the Irish government must accept responsibility. However, unlike most countries plagued by economic turmoil, the Irish recession is an unusual case. The harsh reality that most people do not realise or are perhaps unwilling to accept is that it has not been the banks or the government alone that caused the recession but in fact the entire society. Almost everyone has their share of the blame for the mess the country finds itself in: Greedy tradesmen, foolish young families who took out unnecessarily large mortgages, couples that insisted on buying a new mercedes every 2 years even though an opel astra would have sufficed, people who took out loans for luxuries like holidays and even young fools like me who felt we were entitled to piss our hard earned cash up against a wall on a friday night in a haze of carefree debauchery.

From the political elite right down through every tennet of society, Ireland stinks of greed and a pathetic unwillingness to accept responsibility for our own mistakes. We are now the laughing stock of Europe and will be used as a perfect example to future students of economics of how not to do things and a warning to other up and coming countries not to believe your own hype.

If we are to emerge from this dreadful state of affairs, we must have enough talk of the untouchables (child benefit, students, the OAP's) It's time we accepted that in a nation, we must all pull together and share the burden to adress this problem unified and united.