Brian Cowen gave a speech at Georgetown University in which he reflects on what happened in Ireland in recent years, including the context in which policy decisions in Ireland were made during the years of strong growth and during the crisis. He stated that Ireland’s adjustment path and return to markets can be helped by continued restructuring of the banking system: “The next reform must involve a deal on the Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes.” He further states that the euro area policy of ‘no bank failures and no burning of senior bank creditors’ has been a constant during the crisis. And as a member of the euro area, Ireland must play by the rules. Although it is clear that serious mistakes were made in individual European countries, including in Ireland, prior to the euro crisis, he  notes that whether a narrower [bank] guarantee would have staved off an implosion of the banking system at a lower cost to the state is a matter for economic historians to ruminate on: “We had to deal with this crisis in real time. Our view at the time was that we would get one shot at calming the markets.”