At a stroke, with a stroke, the provisions of the Finance Bill, the 437,000 on the live register, the 50,000 set to emigrate and planning permission for the final stage of the Corrib gas pipe: all disappeared. And in their place: a beleaguered fightin man appeared; a man from the 'real world' making brave appeal to the battered, courageous truth behind 'lazy media narrative'; a man committed to overcoming his own marginalisation and wresting some degree of power for his downtrodden, sidelined tribe. As we eyeball the optics of Mary Coughlan's mourning morning dress, Gavan Titley takes up the story.
Is there anything left to say about the spectacle of the last week? How do you sketch out that place beyond absurdity, the ‘are’ in ‘we are where we are’? Unluckily, others have been here before.
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In a week that saw Brian Cowen stomp angrily from studio to studio, mouth afroth, horns lowered and tail swishing dangerously, Patrick Barry wonders if our home-grown 
Malachy Browne reports on the banks and investors keeping the loan pyres burning. 
In 1987 Brian Lenihan Sr told us sternly: 'We can't all live on a small island'. With the publication this week of the ESRI's forecast that 50,000 people will leave Ireland this year the spin machine, which has been chuntering along steadily since recession hit, has burst into one of its periodic spurts of overdrive. 
According to a 2008 report by the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, 'Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale.' Justin Frewen and Anna Datta examine the health effects of inequality, and argue that an equitable health service alone is not enough to ensure equal health for all.
Rumours of this special little island's special ability to perform economic miracles were, as we all know by now, greatly exaggerated. Aidan Regan outlines the peculiar alignment of stars that led to boom, and the choices made that guaranteed spectacular bust.
