It wasn't just the banks - we did this to ourselves

Okay. You are up to you neck in debt. Your house is worth half the value of your mortgage, which is in arrears and you have not one penny in savings. So, what did he look like? You know, the big, bad man in the bank that held the semi-automatic to your head and made you sign for a loan twice the GDP of a small country. Right bastard, wasn't he? What? There was no big, bad man? Thought so. But don't beat yourself up too much, for you were not the only fool living in this uniquely Irish paradise. One way or another, each one of us contributed to the economic cesspit that is Ireland today. So, please, let's all stop proclaiming our innocence and own up to the part we played in our own demise. Because after the onset of puberty, the defence of 'he made me do it' somehow loses its punch. Isn't it high time we admitted that we made our own beds? Now they are not even ours to lie in. There are some, however, who can probably be excused for believing the hype of the boom: those who left secondary school after the mid-1990s, because these Celtic Tiger cubs simply never knew anything other than good times. For the first time in the history of this State, third-level education was free, student loans and credit cards were no more than entitlements, and every iota of economic forecast was deliriously positive. As far as this age group was concerned, this was a perfectly normal state of affairs. But what, pray tell, were the rest of us thinking? Did we really believe that we were some sort of modern-day Cinderellas finally granted our long-denied fairytale lifestyle? Fairytales are not real. Really. So why did we all feel the need to own 86 houses, nine 4x4s (that's if one lived in the city - the minimum required for rural living was 12), and take 11 foreign holidays a year? Good old-fashioned pride and greed - nothing less, nothing more. And if there is one characteristic that we Irish have in abundance, that's pride; we are world-class snobs and social climbers. It's as though our collective sub-conscious is haunted and tormented by the years of oppression suffered by our predecessors, and we just cannot exorcise those demons. This was our chance to convince ourselves and the world that we really were masters of our own domain and a force to be reckoned with. Other nations would pay homage to Ireland's economic prowess, and we would truly sicken our next-door-neighbours as we jetted off to New York to buy a new handbag for the local sports day. Over the course of the boom, there were many manifestations of our lust for superiority, but one that would certainly be in the running for first place is the whole notion of kitchens. Yes, kitchens. And yes, this would be fantastically funny if it weren't for the absolutely sinful amount of money that was spent on these things. Women (and this stereotype is justified) turned into raving lunatics at the mere mention of the once humble kitchen. But this excitement was not induced by the prospect of turning out delicious family meals - no, that was a job for the local takeaway. Somewhere along the line, we began measuring the net worth of Mná na hEireann by their worktops and cabinets. Hence, no self-respecting woman would spend a penny less than the average industrial wage on her shrine to vanity. "Look, that countertop is solid granite, and, wow, the drawers slide closed automatically!" was the common gasp. Yes, well, I find that a good kick usually closes presses just fine; plus, it teaches the cat to stay out of your way. Not content to delude ourselves, we also raised our children with a most skewed view of reality. These golden boys and girls got whatever they wanted (as long as it was designer, of course), whenever they wanted it, just by screaming at the simpletons that were their parents, with absolutely no idea of the quid pro quo system. How they are going to manage in the real world is beyond me. Over the course of the boom, we persuaded ourselves that we had moved as far away as possible from the despair of penal times. The irony is that instead of being evicted from our homes by the British, we are now being thrown out of our mansions by our own system - an arrangement that would never have worked without an endless supply of pride and greed.