We have come to a critical point in our development as a nation. The time for deluding ourselves is over. It is time to recognise that the world has changed and that we must take responsibility for our actions. We can no longer have our cake and eat it or adopt a "holier than thou" attitude. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, anti-American commentators railed against American foreign policy while Irish Governments pleaded for more green cards, more Morrison visa schemes and more US investment. We got away with it because nobody in the US gave a tinker's curse about what we said and did at that time. It suited American politicians to court the Irish vote by helping out the auld sod on occasion. American public opinion was blissfully unaware and uninformed of events and of views expressed in Ireland and we excelled as the hurler on the ditch.