However, the remarkable height of the dollar against the euro is about as thrilling as they can get.

The Australian dollar reached a high of 0.82 against the beleaguered European currency on January 16. It also hit a 27-year-high against sterling.

That was unthinkable in recent memory, with the Aussie dollar at 0.48 against the euro at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

(As of yesterday evening it was at 0.81).

It’s creating problems for some and opportunities for others.

For backpackers freshly landed Down Under, the Aussie’s dizzying climb will serve them with a cruel welcome.

Savings will be eaten into more rapidly and early recourse to that dreaded backpacker practice – employment – will be needed sooner than planned.

Australia’s major cities are expensive enough in the first instance. Add to that the fact new Irish backpackers have had less with which to prepare financially for their departure than previous Irish arrivals, owing often to a stint on the dole.

So many arrive in Australia with less in their pockets.

Recent media reports suggest that some backpackers, including those who have arrived from Ireland, are finding themselves trapped working in Sydney, unable to afford to travel to see what this great country has to offer.

Established expats receiving visitors from Ireland can expect louder grumbles of discontent about costs than usual.

Conversely, the exchange rate offers opportunities for others.

A miraculous return to what would be considered historically normal levels of exchange between the euro and Australian dollar is not likely to happen any time soon.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland radio programme on January 20, Greece’s finance minister said his country’s chance of defaulting on its debts was 60 to 40.

Such an unstable and unpredictable environment cannot possibly breed recovery by the end this year or next.

Australian investors are now looking to Europe and understandably so given the large assets that need to be shifted by Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Italy to strive for balanced books.

National Australia Bank and Barclays told The Wall Street Journal on January 18 that they were hearing of more interest in potential deals in eurozone countries. “I am seeing an increase in interest and discussion around Europe as an option,” Peter King, head of acquisition finance, institutional banking at NAB told the newspaper.

“Where the currency is sitting at the moment versus the euro, the boards of companies and investment committees are no doubt thinking about their European growth aspirations,” King said.

It may be depressing to hear Ireland the subject of what sounds like speculators’ chatter.

Still, why not accept, prima facie, the egregious situation the country is in and adopt such logic for smaller investment opportunities?

The inflated property market was, we now know, much of Ireland’s recent undoing. Its collapse has led to some remarkably low prices, with drops of up to 50 per cent since the boom era in the Irish capital alone.

While those who were unfortunate enough to lose out in that market will be unable to re-enter it for years, there is a large contingent of wealthy Irish expats around the globe who might be enticed to own a home in the country of their birth.

Legally, it may be difficult to get such schemes up and running, given the various different source countries of the buyers.

The European Union has made moves to protect expats’ property investments in the likes of Spain and Malta. Australia, America, Canada and Britain would be good places to start getting the word out.

It might not be something that expats or the government would consider normally. But we are not living through normal times.

Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery, where graves of Irishmen who fought for Britain in WWII remain unmarked. (Pic: Infomatique/Flickr)

The legacy of Irishmen who fought for the British army in World War I and World War II is considered too rarely.

A BBC radio documentary broadcast last week – coupled with some recent Irish agitation on the topic – has brought their fate into relief once more.

The documentary, aired as part of BBC Radio 4’s Face The Facts series, tells the story of Irish soldiers who were placed on a blacklist after leaving the Irish Army to fight for Britain against Hitler.

A confidential list, conceived and maintained by de Valera’s government, barred the men from gaining State jobs.

Some 4,983 ‘deserters’ were dismissed under the Emergency Powers (No 362) Order 194.

The surviving elderly Irish citizens involved still feel as if they are pariahs.  That reality is poignantly recalled in the first person during the programme.

Our modern eyes – less steeled by the conflict and painful division of past generations – can see that it was shameful to have treated men who were heroes abroad as hounds at home.

There are several shades of grey within this unsavoury episode in Irish history. An attempt to understand why is not apologia.

The actions, clearly regrettable, were comprised more of realpolitik than any overarching dastardliness.

The fledgling State and Defence Forces were at pains to use every opportunity to bang the drum of their own legitimacy.

In fair mind and without hysteria, can we admit the harshness of ‘the list’ was designed to punish the men for the army they had fought for, just as much as the act of ‘desertion’ itself?

In the first decades after independence, concern about an illegal, violent and militarised organisation and what that organisation could do to Ireland’s fragile sovereignty were real. In refusing to give the IRA a stick with which to beat them, the government of the day went too far, to the detriment of noble Irish citizens.

The companion piece to the Face The Facts programme published on the BBC website, contained an erroneous contention by a Trinity College historian, noted in this blogpost.

He estimated that 60 per cent of the Irish population “expected or indeed hoped the Germans would win” World War II.

It was equivocation and a taint on an otherwise fine documentary to link the stark official reaction to these brave men – some who had liberated Belsen – with wide Irish support for Nazism.

Some 70,000 Irish fought for the British Army during World War II.

The programme aired days before an historian’s plea for soldiers’ families to help identify and mark their graves in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery.

The historian has called for these men’s families to come forward so that they can be recognised appropriately.

The Justice Minister Alan Shatter, meanwhile, is waiting on legal advice from the Attorney General on whether the Irishmen branded ‘deserters’ can be given an official pardon. Labour and Sinn Féin support the proposal.

There is a window to offer full and frank restoration to the men and their families.

It would mean something coming from the State that was the very source of their ill-treatment.

It is a narrow window, however. The impending centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising is likely to make public debate on this forgotten few impossible amid a potentially jingoistic din.

Time is not a friend to the men waiting on redress. Some are nearing 100.

It was July 2006 before the Irish Government first commemorated almost 70,000 Irishmen who died during World War I. Many died alongside Anzacs at Gallipoli.

At a ceremony held in the National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge, former President Mary McAleese laid a wreath on the cenotaph. The Defence Force’s participation on that day was a form of recognition and respect.

It’s not too late to right a wrong.

The Irish rugby team provided a sporting win to savour at Eden Park. (File pic)

It has been a year of upheaval.

Few could have predicted how Ireland could change and change utterly in the space of 12 months.

The European debt crisis continues to present grave challenges to Ireland and the other 26 members of the European Union.

Uncertainty pervades. The Irish Government has sought legal counsel on the need to hold a referendum on the fiscal accord hammered out in crisis talks last week.

Voters’ recent form on European referenda is not something that will provide comfort to the Taoiseach.

The Irish public continue to pay the price for the mistakes of a former government and a financial cohort who put short-term self-interest ahead of the national good.

It is disquieting that few have paid a price for their actions.

The recent budget, announced over two days, has made gruesome reading. Austerity is a word that almost every Irish man and woman now understands with clarity. It doesn’t mean they like it.

In 2011, we have seen the explosive fallout from incidences of clerical child sex abuse in the diocese of Cloyne, the eradication of Fianna Fáil as an electoral force, a controversial and at times bizarre presidential election campaign and the appointment of Ireland’s first female Chief Justice.

Irish politics lost some of its members to illness and old-age. Brian Lenihan and Garret FitzGerald passed away prompting differing assessments of their legacies.

As is often the Irish experience, sport provided a welcome distraction in times of economic strife. Ireland beating Australia at Eden Park at the Rugby World Cup was an unexpected but delightful moment.

Giovanni Trapattoni was not to be outdone. The manner of the Republic of Ireland’s play-off success was not something that fans of Irish soccer see often, if ever.

The Irish in Australia continue to write their own story.

More of us are arriving. Ireland was in the top ten source countries for skilled migration to Australia this year in absolute terms and the largest in per capita terms.

We welcome tentative moves by the Irish Government to work with Western Australia to structure an apprenticeship scheme to accept Irish workers. With emigration once again a fraught topic in Ireland, a softly-softly approach is needed.

Of course, the most prevalent Irish person in Australia was Qantas CEO Alan Joyce – at one point the third most mentioned man on the planet – who made headlines as the airline and unions battled it out.

Prior to the dispute, he was the target of some ill-considered commentary. Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan haphazardly referred to him as a ‘bomb maker’. Earlier, The Australian newspaper had apologised for an article, which mocked the Dubliner’s accent.

There were other incidences of paddywhackery too, such as Tony Abbott’s ill-judged Irish gaffe at the Libs’ party conference and WA State Premier Colin Barnett’s comments about the ‘leprechaun of Joondalup’.

Such commentary is daft and politically damaging.

More recently, the Australian Treasury’s plan to scrap the Living Away From Home Allowance (LAFHA) left many expats scratching their heads over what to do next.

For many temporary workers with families, the fringe tax benefit was used to help pay rent, childcare, school fees or the mortgage back in Ireland.  If the cost of residing in Australia remains prohibitive for skilled workers then they may simply look elsewhere. Something will have to give.

Next year looms as another difficult one for Ireland.

More austerity, more emigration, more economic hardship.

As we face the uncertainty of 2012, we wish our readers, advertisers, subscribers, friends and colleagues a safe and happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Mary McAleese spoke with a homeless man at St Vincent de Paul, Dublin, on her final official engagement. (Pic: Niall Carson/PA)

As attention turns to Ireland’s new President, Michael D Higgins, after his official inauguration last Friday as Ireland’s ninth head of state, it is worth reflecting on the legacy of the woman who has vacated the role, Mary McAleese.

Mrs McAleese was the first person from Northern Ireland to hold the position.

With hindsight, we can look upon the popular election of a British citizen as Irish president as significant. It spoke of a prevailing wind in Irish politics in which less than a year later would see Ms McAleese in office for the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Ulster Catholic academic faced a considerable task upon her election on October 31, 1997.

Born in Belfast as Mary Leneghan in 1951, she was educated in law at Queen’s University and called to the Northern Ireland bar after graduating. At just 24, she became a professor of criminal law at Trinity College in Dublin, before spending the years between 1979 and 1981 as a journalist with RTÉ (an often overlooked curio).

She returned to her alma mater as pro vice chancellor in 1994, before three years later securing the nomination of Fianna Fáil for the presidency. Her candidacy was supported by a then-dominant party, led by Bertie Ahern.

She has not suffered from the taint of their spectacular demise.

Before taking office, her predecessor Mary Robinson recast the role – albeit under the auspices of tight constitutional limitations – by performing with dignity and international stateswomanship.

Until that result in 1990, presidents had all been male.  Most spent their seven years concealed from the public, comfortably in The Park. Robinson broke the male hegemony on the office.

She was going to be a hard act to follow and the immense goodwill that she built up during her term might just have been the cause of Ireland’s initial aloofness towards her successor.

Robinson had negotiated the roadbumps of pre-devolution Northern Ireland, drawing criticism for her well-documented handshake with Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams in the process.

McAleese accepted the torch that had been passed to her by Robinson and that ongoing work culminated with the visit of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth to the Irish State in May of this year.

McAleese often cites the 2003 Special Olympics to be the highlight of her presidency, but others may observe the British Monarch’s visit to take that accolade. “Your visit here is an important sign – among a growing number of signs – that we have embarked on the fresh start envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement,” McAleese told a State dinner, held in Dublin.

“Your visit is a formal recognition of what has, for many years, been a reality – that Ireland and Britain are neighbours, equals, colleagues and friends. Though the seas between us have often been stormy, we have chosen to build a solid and enduring bridge of friendship between us and to cross it to a new, a happier future.”

Her presidency built many bridges and she held office as Ireland moved, catastrophically, from boom to bust.

It was a difficult end to her tenure. McAleese certainly felt the pain of her people in later years and there was some difficulty in maintaining the restraint demanded by her office as the actions of Ireland’s economic institutions came to light.

The latter years of a 14-year presidency were characterised by crumbling pillars of old Ireland.

Two such pillars – Fianna Fáil and the Catholic Church – were institutions close to McAleese. The first had nominated her while the latter had sought her participation in the Church’s New Ireland Forum in 1984.

Both institutions have had a torrid few years.

However, McAleese’s affiliation with the pair did nothing to prevent her comforting and assuaging the grief of those who had suffered as a consequence of a deviance that rankled in Fianna Fáil and the Church’s outer edges.

She leaves office with the affection of her people.

Colm Tóibín lamented that emigration is a tragedy for Ireland. (Pic: File)

At the recent Global Irish Economic Forum in Dublin, the Irish Government invited a diverse range of individuals from the world of business, the arts and philanthropy to discuss Ireland’s diaspora.

At one of the workshops, author Colm Tóibín opined that “emigration out of Ireland has in general been a tragedy for Ireland and for the people who emigrated from Ireland”.

As someone who has written books — albeit fictional — on the topic, Tóibín is well entitled to his view, but is he right?

In raw economic terms, Tóibín is certainly right.

For Ireland, the troubled economic entity, it is a tragedy that the state is losing many of its best and brightest to other countries. Australia is one of the economies that has benefited enormously by the influx of skilled Irish workers, trained or educated by the Irish taxpayer.

The Irish are thriving in Australia, commanding the highest average earnings of any European migrant group.

In human terms, emigration is difficult.

Any circumstance where a family gets geographically separated is painful. There is no getting around this and expats often have to face the challenge of raising a family without the support of their own, just as mothers and fathers left behind ‘grieve’ for their departed children.

Children of expats often miss out on the unique friendship of cousins, the deep affection of grandparents and the trusted circle of uncles and aunts.

However, those children do not miss what they never had and emigrants often idealise the extended family experience, ignoring the political squabbles that can often plague close-knit Irish clans.

So, do emigrants warrant or deserve pity?

Since the 18th century, Irish people have left the land in search of better lives elsewhere.

Between 1717 and 1785 more than 200,000 Ulster Scots/Irish emigrated to the United States. From those days forward, Irish people have left Ireland either as free-willed emigrants or refugees from religious persecution, hunger or economic disadvantage.

Many left to escape the scourge of sectarianism in the north of Ireland or the blanket papism in the south.

More recently, people have left Ireland to satisfy their ambition or their cultural curiosity about the world.

In times of economic hardship — like now, or in the late 1980s for instance — that ambition may be limited to acquiring a job. But even in the days of the Celtic Tiger, young Irish people left in large numbers to seek adventure and experience abroad, much in the way young Aussies do. Many of those who have come here have utilised the very successful working holiday programme, which has seen more than 300,000 young Irish come here over the past 25 years.

For many of us, that working holiday extended beyond a year. Work, sponsorship, career opportunities, romance or other life events perhaps changed the plan. The journey from carefree
adventurer to expat can happen in the blink of an eye.

Many never look back, others do little else.

So what, if anything, would draw emigrants back home? Stable employment? Yes. Family? Almost certainly. Lifestyle? No doubt.

But expats often get seduced by what their current location offers that Ireland cannot: a free and well-funded national health system, a meritocratic employment system, the relative absence of cronyism and nepotism, a modern electoral system, proper transparency and accountability in public life, and the opportunity to reinvent themselves.

Many Irish leave because of how the country is run and recent events only confirm their worst fears.

What keeps them away is certainly influenced by the prevailing economic circumstances but that is only part of the story.

Ireland, like Cheers Bar in the famous Boston sitcom, is a place where everyone knows your name. For many, that is a comfort zone. For others, it’s a claustrophobic trap.

Emigration can be a tragedy for those who have no desire to leave.  For most Irish, however, the urge to go is simply satisfying an innate and often irresistible desire to leave the nest.

The Queen spoke at Dublin Castle during her State Visit to Ireland in May. (Pic: File)

As Australia prepares to welcome its rarely seen head-of-state, Ireland is preparing to elect its ninth president.

Ireland, struggling with severe economic hardship, has been energised by a fascinating election campaign involving a diverse and intriguing field of candidates that represent the country’s emerging diversity.

Meanwhile, the Queen arrives in Australia this week for what many observers believe will be the last time.

The lack of media coverage and interest ahead of the sovereign’s visit underlines, once again, the peculiarity and absurdity of Australia’s constitutional arrangements.

Clearly, the Queen is not Australian. Even the monarchists would not be so hypocritical as to claim that she is.

Yes, she is well liked and perhaps even loved by some. She also has the respect and admiration of many republicans as a woman whose devotion to duty has been impeccable. One only has to look at her extraordinary recent visit to Ireland to see how this elderly lady has the capacity to inspire and win new friends.

But the concept of a privileged English aristocrat being head of state of Australia grows more ludicrous by the day.

Her reign as Queen of Australia is a consequence of history. It is the legacy of Captain Cook’s annexation of Australia in 1788, and later, in the late 19th century, of the unwillingness of the so-called fathers of federation to cut the apron strings with mother England, and later again, of the spinelessness of Australia’s politicians to grasp the nettle of constitutional reform and, most recently, of a stitched-up referendum devised to split the republican camp.

Ironically, that vote, in 1999, went down because Australians wanted what Irish citizens have: the ability to decide who their head of state will be.

Australian political leaders of the day, the Liberals’ John Howard and Labor’s Kim Beazley, along with the then head of the Australian Republican Movement, Malcolm Turnbull — who later became the Liberals’ leader — were uncomfortable with the ‘Irish model’ or any scenario that would facilitate a popular vote for a president.

So here we are, with a head of state that few, if any, Australians see as one of their own, an individual who has the job by virtue of her lineage who cannot be voted out no more than anyone voted her in — an absent posterior on a meaningless throne.

Contrast this to the energy and dynamism of a presidential election in Ireland where the citizenry, sovereign in an Irish republic, decide who their head of state is going to be. This is the most fascinating of electoral contests, bringing together characters that represent the broad spectrum of Irish life.

The field includes a former paramilitary, a gay academic, a successful businessman, a former Eurovision winner, a philanthropic organiser, a left-leaning poet.

The campaign has been robust but conducted with civility and respect between the candidates.

Sadly, not all Irish citizens will get a chance to vote. Tens of thousands of citizens will be disenfranchised from the poll because they will not be present in the country on election day.

Irish politicians, it seems, are not prepared to bring the country into line with other democracies and allow its citizens abroad a say.

While a number of the candidates for the presidency have vocalised support for extending the franchise, there seems to be little political will to make it happen.

It is perplexing that the recent Global Irish Economic Forum, essentially created to explore ways to energise Ireland’s diaspora, did not look at voting rights as a tool for the country to stay connected with its global family.

But putting that issue to one side, the presidential poll — to be held on October 27 — will be fascinating indeed.

Whoever wins will be able to say that they have put themselves in front of the citizenry and won their support in a democratic poll. That is something that Australia’s head of state can never claim.

457 visa holders and international students pay thousands to enrol a child in ACT and NSW public schools. (Pic: Stock)

The number of Irish being granted temporary residency visas is on the rise.

Finding an employer who will sponsor you and your dependents to come to Australia — or to remain here — dominates the thoughts of many an Irish worker right now.

The ongoing recession in Ireland is encouraging more and more young (and not so young) Irish to seek out employment opportunities abroad. Australia is at the top of that list. For those who have not taken up their Working Holiday Visa (you are allowed only one) the process of getting to Australia and into the workforce is straightforward.

But for those contemplating a move with dependents, the challenge becomes more complicated.

The Irish Echo has learned of growing numbers of skilled Irish workers who are coming to Australia on a holiday visa, not to soak up the sun on Bondi Beach, but to talk to potential employers about sponsorship.

While the changes to the Independent Skilled programme makes it easier for most Irish workers to make the points threshold, the quickest, cheapest and easiest way to enter Australia long-term is to get sponsored.

The 457 scheme has been a major winner for the Australian economy and exchequer.

Workers must earn above a certain threshold, which means that they pay significant personal income tax. Quite often, sponsored Irish workers earn well above the average wage.

But individual workers are tethered to their sponsor. If, for any reason, the sponsor decides to let them go or make unreasonable changes to their working conditions, these workers have effectively no industrial relations recourse.

Furthermore, many families who come here as sponsored migrants find that temporary residency has another price.

While those on 457 visas pay their taxes, they do not qualify for many government services like Medicare.

This is further complicated when there are children, or a pregnancy, involved.

Parents have reported to the Irish Echo of problems with access to, for instance, immunisation programmes.

In the case of a pregnancy, temporary residents from Ireland are covered under the reciprocal health agreement between the two countries but it seems that only some public hospitals are aware of this.

Furthermore, children born in Australia to those on 457 visas have no right of citizenship here.

This seems unnecessarily churlish when these families are here legitimately and are making such a positive contribution to the community.

Another contentious area concerns school fees. If you are on a temporary resident visa in New South Wales for instance, you must pay significant fees for your children to attend a public school.

You can appeal to have the fees waived but only under conditions of hardship.

This is plainly wrong.

Neither are temporary residents entitled to other government family benefits like the childcare rebate.

The Australian Government is taking advantage of its temporary residents.

If their skills are needed, as we are so often told, the Government needs to extend a hand of friendship when people arrive, not endeavour to shake them down for every cent they can.

Many new arrivals are left with the clear impression that they should feel lucky to have been let in and not complain.

But the system, as it is, is creating unnecessary anxiety among new arrivals, particularly families.

Australia should be making it easy for these temporary residents to become permanent. That process remains too costly both in terms of time and money.

Anders Behring Breivik, 32, is accused of the twin attacks on a youth camp and a government building in Oslo last month. (Pic: AP Photo/Twitter)

When former Prime Minister John Howard famously announced “we will decide who comes to this country and the manner in which they come” during the 2001 election campaign, he was accused of dog-whistle politics.

He was appealing to what former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser recently referred to as “the redneck vote”.

The words resonated among blue-collar “battlers” who had been attracted to the xenophobic message of Pauline Hanson. It was a successful tactic in raw political terms.

Howard won the election and remained prime minister for another six years. But the world was also watching and listening and critics accused Howard of playing the “race card”.

Australia’s international reputation took a hammering.

There has been much dog-whistling since. Tony Abbott’s mantra of stopping the boats is the latest incarnation of this blunt political tool.

But the problem with dog-whistle politics is that, while your message may reach those for whom it is intended, it may also be heard by those who are prone to extremism and violence.

No doubt John Howard is wincing over being mentioned in the manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian who killed over 70 young people last month in Oslo.

Breivik, who holds extreme right wing views, wrote that “luckily, not all Christian leaders are appeasers of Islam. One of the intelligent ones comes from Australia, a country that has been fairly resistant to Political Correctness”.

He went on: “They have taken serious steps towards actually enforcing their own borders, despite the predictable outcries from various NGOs and anti-racists, and Prime Minister John Howard has repeatedly proven to be one of the most sensible leaders in the Western world.”

Catholic Archbishop George Pell and conservative historian and commentator Keith Windscuttle were also quoted by the mass murderer.

Breivik may be insane, as his defence lawyer asserts, but clearly, he saw John Howard’s utterances on border control as echoing his own anti-Islamic views. That is the danger of dog-whistling on issues like race.

Recently, in both America and Australia, we have seen a massive escalation of incendiary language regarding politicians and politics. Palpable anger is evident on talk-back radio, in blogs and in comments posted on news websites.

The viciousness of the invective is startling.

In the United States, we have seen Sarah Palin criticised for using the image of a rifle’s crosshairs to ‘target’ Democrats in advance of the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Giffords’ Tea Party opponent in the 2010 election, Jesse Kelly, went even further with the violent rhetoric. Kelly’s campaign held an event called “Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly”. The language is deliberately provocative.

In this country, the shrill campaign against the carbon tax has attracted extremists and conspiracy theorists who have shown a Tea Party-like lack of inhibition with their rhetoric.

Shock jocks like Alan Jones have suggested that Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Greens leader Bob Brown should be “thrown into the harbour”. At a recent anti-carbon tax rally, a participant suggested to Liberal front-bencher Joe Hockey that Australians should take up arms against the government.

Right now, we are being told by right-wing commentators that scientists are involved in a conspiracy on climate change.

The CSIRO, Australia’s primary government science authority, has been described by Alan Jones as “corrupt”.

It is essential that this torrent of hate, misinformation and fundamentalism is not fuelled by opportunistic, populist politicians.

Whipping up public anger on sensitive topics by dog-whistling can have catastrophic consequences, as we saw in Oslo.

The Diocese of Cloyne. Just 32 years after the papal visit, the Irish Catholic Church is in crisis.

In 1979, more than 1.25 million Irish Catholics attended the papal Mass at Dublin’s Phoenix Park. More than one in four of the island’s population was present at this solitary event.

The visit was a bombastic statement on Irish Catholicism, a watershed.

Pope John Paul told the faithful: “On Sunday mornings in Ireland, no one seeing the great crowds making their way to and from Mass, could have any doubts about Ireland’s devotion.”

This apparently indestructible devotion had a significant downside. Tragically, it provided a stained-glass curtain behind which dozens of clerical paedophiles performed their dark crimes without sanction.

The appalling litany of crimes against children by ordained ministers of the Catholic Church in Ireland – outlined in all of their nauseating detail in a series of recent reports — constructs a tragic tapestry of pain and suffering.

More recent revelations about the Church’s efforts to obstruct the paths of justice and protect serial offenders adds insult to the injuries that have been inflicted on the innocent.

Just 32 years after the papal visit, the Irish Catholic Church is in crisis.

Last week, the Taoiseach did something that would have been politically suicidal in times past – he lashed out at the Vatican for its role in thwarting the paths to justice for Irish victims of abuse.

But he went further, attacking what he called the Vatican’s culture of  “dysfunction, disconnection, elitism and narcissism”.

“For the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago, not three decades ago,” he said.

“And in doing so, the Cloyne Report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, the narcissism that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day. The rape and torture of children were downplayed or ‘managed’ to uphold instead, the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and ‘reputation’.”

The Taoiseach went on to describe the Vatican as having a “calculated withering position” on clerical abuse, which he said was “the polar opposite of the radicalism, the humility and the compassion upon which the Roman Church was founded”.

“This is not Rome,” he said. “Nor is it industrial school or Magdalene Ireland, where the swish of a soutane-smothered conscience and humanity and the swing of a thurible ruled the Irish Catholic world. This is the Republic of Ireland 2011. A republic of laws, of rights and responsibilities, of proper civic order, where the delinquency and arrogance of a particular version of a particular kind of morality will no longer be tolerated or ignored.”

Enda Kenny’s speech is a watershed for Church/State relations in the Republic of Ireland and the clearest indication yet that this nation — whose very constitution once enshrined the privileged place of the Catholic Church — has shed its papal subservience and embraced a new secularism.

The Irish Catholic Church will never again enjoy the stratospheric support it enjoyed in the 1960s and 1970s. Mass attendances are falling sharply and, for the first time in the history of the State, Catholic parents are choosing not to baptise their children.

Educate Together’s non-denominational schools are becoming increasingly popular with parents whose faith has been tested, whose doubt has been provoked, whose trust has been destroyed.

The Taoiseach has put the Church on notice and modern Ireland has cheered its support. The Vatican’s response will be most interesting. This Government deserves praise for confronting these issues head on but we await the next steps.

Too often in the past, police investigations into abuse cases have failed to deliver convictions. The political rhetoric has been strong. We hope the political will is there to match it.

The Church itself needs to start redefining its role in Irish life.

A good starting point would be total complicity with the redress process for victims of abuse, something that has sadly not been evident by all Catholic orders to date.

Mr Abbott displayed a careless lack of judgement.

Over the past month, the Irish Echo has noted a number of negative references to Ireland and the Irish in Australia.

Representations of the Irish as stupid or as hopeless drunks  are, sadly, the slings and arrows that we must suffer from those who know no better. But when they turn up in one of Australia’s quality newspapers – The Sydney Morning Herald – and on the lips of Australia’s would-be prime minister, Tony Abbott, it is time to speak up and speak out.

We also saw last week a clumsy reference to Bloody Sunday by a Liberal frontbencher and, just recently, we heard a well-known senator chastise Irish-born head of Qantas Alan Joyce as “an Irish bomber”.

All of this might sound like England in the 1960s rather than Australia in 2011 but, sadly, it seems that a lack of sensitivity is still much in evidence.

It seems that it did not even occur to Tony Abbott that cracking a “stupid Irish” joke at the Liberal Party conference would cause offence. No malice intended, he, or rather someone in his office, evidently told the Irish Embassy after the ambassador issued a “please explain”.

But imagine if Labour’s Ed Milliband in Britain had said what Mr Abbott said.

It would not have occurred. Why? Because Irish jokes are simply no longer acceptable in British public life or commentary.

Years of putting up with Paddy and Mick put-downs from odious comedians like Bernard Manning and his ilk led to a backlash among the Irish in England. Enough was enough.

No British politician – perhaps except those belonging to the extreme right – would dare to enter this prejudicial minefield now.

The question of why the Irish are still considered fair game is one to reflect on and, perhaps, goes to the heart of the unique cultural circumstances of the Irish in Australia.

The concept of the Irish as ethnic is a source of hilarity to many Aussies who associate the term with those who arrived here after the second World War. The Irish are part of the Australian DNA so, as a community, we are supposed to be able to cop it sweet. You have to be prepared to put up with this sort of “banter” here. It’s the Australian way.

But those who decry political correctness are often those who believe it is also their right to be offensive.

Imagine if Tony Abbott had told a Jewish joke at the Liberal conference, or Senator Bill Heffernan had referred to someone of Arabic background as a “bomber” or if a frontbencher had made a clumsy reference to the Holocaust to describe a new tax.

There would be a political price to pay, or at least the perception of a political price to pay. No such inhibitions with Irish jokes.

Mr Abbott – who was born in England and is a dedicated monarchist – has shown not only a lack of sensitivity here. As someone who aspires to be prime minister, he has displayed a careless lack of judgement.

Perhaps he has Irish acquaintances who are content to take such slurs on the chin but every community has its Uncle Toms.

There are those who will dismiss this commentary as nothing more than over-sensitivity. What happened to the renowned Irish sense of humour, they might ask.

An underpinning of respect allows some latitude, but there is little evidence of respect here, only ham-fisted buffoonery.

Coming off the back of Mr Abbott’s peculiar, bumbling speech at the Lansdowne Club on St Patrick’s Day, it is clear that the Liberal leader needs to recalibrate his understanding of Irishness.

As a community, we should perhaps treat such idiocy with disdain as opposed to anger. Rise above it. But the message does not seem to be getting through that we don’t like it.

Representations of the Irish as idiots emerged from elements of the British press in the 18th century at a time when Westminster government policy was denying ordinary Irish people an education and creating the circumstances for a famine that would claim more than one million Irish lives. Apart from Britain, the only other country where Irish jokes endure is here in Australia.

It is time they stopped.