03 December 2010, Brussels – That the present Irish government mismanaged the benign economic conditions that prevailed, and ultimately left the country unprepared for the subprime crisis in 2008, is not news. More relevant is to question how the political system of the Republic of Ireland, and its manipulation by the Fianna Fáil party, left that country so vulnerable to the excesses of neoliberal globalisation and the catastrophic crash which followed. David Kitching, of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), does just that.