Unlike most of the rest of the world, Ireland bailed out the banks but took a state shareholding in them that in some cases was as high as 85%. As they become profitable again the state can sell it's shareholdings to recoup the bail out money

Irish Humour.
It's been said that the hardest job in the world is being a Comedian in Ireland. This is because the Audience is full of comedians

@dermot235 . . . spoiler alert

90yr old Irving marries 60yr old Josephine
On their wedding night Josephine calls down "Irving come upstairs, and make love to me"
(from downstairs) Iriving calls-up "I can't do BOTH"

@FearlessFly That something I've always been fascinated by. Jewish and Irish Humour is so similar. Jewish and Irish humour is so similar. I think it's a coping mechanism for dealing with all the misfortune both Jewish and Irish people have had. The Holocaust for the Jews and the Famine for the Irish. And Ireland and Israel have one BIG thing in common. For the size of our respective countries we have a HUGE diaspora around the world that happened due to misfortune and not from choice. Israel has about the same small population as Ireland (About 7 million) but both countries have maybe 80 million living in various countries around the world. Irish Americans are the biggest Irish Diaspora. But we even have 300,000 Irish living in Uraguay that went there in the 1880's and 1890's. The Irish are EVERYWHERE