What was, pales in comparison to what is coming. I mean Ireland had collective bargaining? Public schools? I'm not sure these are part of any plan for the future that the EU elites have in mind.
And I see this as an opportunity to get the Irish (and European) people to reject neolib policies once and for all versus the opportunity for the elites to completely destroy any vestiges of a social state anywhere in Europe. You somehow see the crisis as some sort of game of moral rewards and punishments. However this is about how the future EU will be structured, on whether, say, the ECB will become a democratically accountable institution and not a clearing house for banker domination in the European economy.

If one thinks that ECB/IMF austerity should be rejected on principle in this case, then I don't see how else Ireland can help this cause other than by doing something like what Jake is saying.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake