Martina Devlin: Think we're angry, Enda? You've seen nothing yet
Taoiseach Enda Kenny being interviewed about the cause of Ireland's economic implosion in Davos, Switzerland
LOOK around. Many of the people in your immediate vicinity are in a state of barely suppressed rage. One spark and up it flares -- disproportionate to the offence, perhaps, but that's how fury operates.
Hostility is activated daily. The Government's manoeuvring to avoid a referendum on the fiscal compact, regardless of whether democracy is best served by one, triggers rage.
Leo Varadkar's breezy observation that he's no fan of plebiscites, on the grounds they rarely end up focusing on what they were intended to decide, triggers rage. Take that to its inevitable conclusion and you may as well push the pause button on accountability for the lifespan of any administration.
Former ESB chief executive Padraig McManus's €800,000 retirement package triggers rage. He ran a semi-state; he didn't discover a cure for cancer.
Jobless figures that show the numbers of people signing on for more than a year have risen by 14pc trigger rage. Is long-term unemployment to be shrugged off as the norm now?
The €100 household charge triggers rage. Particularly among citizens who have paid extortionate amounts of stamp duty.
The avalanche of public servants retiring to avail of higher pensions triggers rage; shouldn't the scheme have been limited to those defined as non-essential or at least easily replaceable? Corporate enforcer Paul Appleby's application highlights the shortcomings.
Brendan Howlin, on 'Morning Ireland' this week, lecturing us about cost-cutting when he backed a cap-busting salary for one of his two special advisers, triggers rage. Leadership by example isn't too much to expect.
Enda's failure to use the word 'some', as in "some people simply went mad borrowing", when outlining the causes of our collapse before an international audience in Switzerland, triggers rage.
Especially as it's the opposite of his remarks in that state-of-the-nation broadcast. Consistency from the Taoiseach isn't too much to expect, either.
So many reasons to fume, so little time for anger-management classes.
And perhaps we are maddened, most of us, by our own weakness in tolerating dual standards, anomalies and inefficiencies such as no other country would stomach. My rage triggers include the health-service shambles, the bank guarantee and Department of Finance chief Kevin Cardiff's reward for failure with promotion to a European spending watchdog.
Not forgetting being overcharged for everything from medical fees to dental treatment and basics, including electricity and food. Take milk: €1.49 on special offer in my local in Dublin, 89p (€1.07) in my mother's corner shop north of the Border.
These anger-prompts crop up daily. No doubt there'll be several more in the arsenal by the weekend. But there is also plenty to brood about from a few years ago -- outrage is stoked by names such as Michael Lynn, a crooked solicitor who fled €80m worth of mortgage fraud and a bench warrant for his arrest. Four years on, we still haven't retrieved him. And Michael Fingleton, whose Irish Nationwide Building Society has cost the State €5.5bn.
Fingers's bank account activity is under scrutiny by Montenegro's authority to prevent money laundering. Just over a month -- I repeat, a month -- after inspectors launched their probe, it is being ratcheted up and is nearing completion. Compare that with our own snail's-pace investigations. Another rage trigger.
These are just some of the events turning us into a nation of Calibans -- the surly man-beast who was enslaved by Duke Prospero in 'The Tempest', as we are yoked to those latter-day aristocrats, the money men. Caliban was permanently infuriated, except when sozzled, and yes, we might recognise an analogy there, too.
His temper was whipped up, among other things, by the sight of his face in a cracked glass. But I dispute the theory that we are fuming at Enda for holding up a mirror to our fallible selves in Davos -- shirking blame because we cannot cope with reality.
During the course of two BBC interviews recently, it was put to me that the Irish are all culpable for the mess in which the State is embroiled. Everyone lost the run of themselves, suggested both interviewers.
Indeed, an analogy was made between Sean Quinn and the general population. The hypothesis was that his spectacular gamble gone wrong reflected everything that was greedy and unhinged about the Irish during the Tiger years -- in which we were all complicit.
Er, not.
Mr Quinn is as representative of Joe Public as Hollywood star Colin Farrell or Ryanair's Michael O'Leary. They are Irishmen, but they are not Everyman.
HOWEVER, the message spreading beyond these shores is that we were all feckless, reckless and caught bang to rights in the end. Some say we care too much about what others think. I say it's important to spread the message that Irish people aren't all untrustworthy. We need to put our best foot forward.
So Enda's generalisation did us no favours there. Am I annoyed about it? You bet. Anger is a natural response to danger and this small nation of ours is under threat.
Often, anger is regarded as negative and we are taught not to express it, unlike other emotions. But inhibition doesn't prevent it from seething away. Nor is all anger misplaced. Fury about injustice has sent protesters on to streets worldwide, from anti-war to civil rights campaigners.
Not much sign of people demonstrating en masse here. Group assertiveness isn't our way in 21st-century Ireland. So the anger has no outlet. This suppression is dangerous and the Government needs to be aware of it.
Either Enda organises a course in anger control for the entire nation or he and his colleagues must pause to reflect on what lessons can be drawn from the simmering wrath and whether steps may be taken to moderate it. It won't simply subside; on the contrary, it is apt to build as further rage triggers emerge.
Calling a referendum, reducing special-adviser salaries that breach the pay cap and slapping a windfall tax on any pensions judged excessive would be a start.
Finally, to focus on the positive (an anger-management technique), let me say how happy I am to see the 'for sale' sign on David Drumm's Malahide property. About time the taxpayer retrieved something from this chancer -- and when that happens, it'll be worth a smile.
Martina Devlin tweets @DevlinMartina
Irish Independent
