So now Brian Cowen has finally gone to ground.
What was the straw that broke his back ?

A round of golf.

A round of golf with Sean Fitzpatrick , the most hated man in the country , a man so loathed that at a charity auction Irish people paid good money to be permitted to be the one to press the button to crush his BMW.

I hate to be a post hoc rationalist but I must tell you that since his bank, the Anglo Irish, refused me a loan in 1989 to set up my restaurant I have no love for him or his bank.

Not only did they refuse me money but they permitted me only to ask it of a bank employee so junior that I afterwards discovered her waiting tables by night to supplement her income.

So allow me to indulge in a little schadenfreude at all of their demise.