Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve already crashed

In October 2006, the then justice minister and Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell gave a speech in Malahide, Co Dublin. It was the beginning of the early run-up to the general election due some six months later and McDowell was seeking to fly an electoral kite.

In retrospect, McDowell can hardly have imagined the catastrophic and long-term impact his words that morning would have.

McDowell not only strongly suggested that the general election ...