Was the ECB Ireland’s ally or enemy in the crisis?

Even in the absence of a proper interrogation of the troika which effectively called the shots in Ireland for three years, the role of the ECB jumps from the pages of last week’s testimony at the banking inquiry.

Michael Noonan was unequivocal last week, insisting that former ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet did tell him that a “bomb would go off in Dublin” if bondholders were burned in 2011. But apart from that headline, ...