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Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil was attacked in the closing stages of the Athens Olympics
</div> Watching the ongoing coverage of Ireland's bail-out crisis, I now know how Vanderlei de Lima must have felt.
You don't remember Vanderlei de Lima?
His is a story that captures the Irish Republic's current situation as well as any other. And there is an Irishman involved too.
The place was Athens, 29 August 2004, and the Brazilian de Lima was leading the field in the Olympic marathon.
After a gruelling 35km (22 miles), de Lima had just 5km left to run with an excellent chance of winning when, bizarrely and out of nowhere, an eccentric and defrocked priest by the name of Father Niall Horan ran out from the crowds and pushed de Lima into the spectators.
The event gained notoriety around the world and Horan emerged as a contestant on Britain's Got Talent last year.
De Lima recovered and went on to finish the marathon, coming third instead of first.
For the Irish economy, the past two years have been a combination of a marathon and a gruelling assault course.
Getting to grips
Of course, the government has made mistakes.
But, compared with other governments, most notably Gordon Brown's Labour government, Ireland started getting to grips with its budgetary crisis early, implementing two emergency budgets in October 2008 and April 2009, followed by a budget last December in which public pay was cut.
Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan delivered two emergency budgets in 2008 and 2009
By a magnitude of 5% of GDP, Ireland has achieved more correction in its budget, in relative terms, than most EU countries put together.
Our debt level is, when you account for a pensions reserve fund, actually still lower than Britain's and this despite a decade of massive infrastructure investment.
Sadly, speculation - justified but overdone - that Ireland's bank bail-out costs would escalate beyond the state's ability to meet them has knocked us off balance.
Badly affected by a property bubble that burst, the estimated cost has been regarded by bond markets as a sign of the state of our economy and a burden that the government cannot bear.
It is no such thing.
Sure, the bail-out is a drag on our fiscal future. But its current estimate - which reports say has been borne out by scrutiny from EU and ECB officials - is around 35bn euros (£30bn; $47bn).
If spread over 10 years - and even if this rises - the annual cost is at or below half of what we spent each year on infrastructure investment.
Painful yes. Fatal no.
Healthy surpluses
As for the current state of the economy - the majority not constituted by the property market - exports rose by 7.8% in August, manufacturing output was up 12% in September, unemployment fell for the second month in a row in October and tax revenues overshot expectations in the same month.
Remarks by the German chancellor served to increase borrowing costs for the Irish Republic
And, unlike Greece, Portugal and Spain, Ireland is heading for healthy balance of payments surpluses in coming years.
And did I mention that US investment in Ireland exceeds US investment in Brazil, Russia, India and China put together?
Unfortunately the Irish government has, as George W Bush might say, "misunderestimated" the early extent of bank losses, allowing doubt to emerge about its full extent.
Nor has the German government helped a whole bunch by appearing to threaten holders of sovereign bonds with "haircuts" [asset value reductions], another Bush-style miscommunication only clarified after last Friday's G20 summit.
Donkeys
Not that the media have been a great help either.
Media have conveyed an image "totally at odds" with Ireland's reality
Images of people riding on donkeys or begging, together with one-sided dramatised narratives about young people leaving the country (our population has continued to grow well into the recession) may boost viewership, listenership and readership figures.
But they convey an image of Ireland totally at odds with the reality of a country that last week was voted by the UN human development index as the world's 5th most desirable place to live.
The UK was - sorry to point this out - 26th. Our GDP per capita remains 30% above the EU average and well above Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
And, unlike France, we are a country where - without riots - we can create agreement between our political parties on the need to get our house in order.
Where do we go from here?
While government and media have played a role, Ireland's current crisis is fundamentally made up of two interacting components - a fiscal crisis and a banking crisis.
We were three weeks away from solving the former by ourselves when doubts about the latter - the proverbial "Father Niall Horan" in this story - hit us for six.
Humiliating
Resorting to a bail-out in relation to our banking crisis might look like a smart move: big sister Angela facing down banks that her little Irish brother is too weak to.
But the damage to Ireland's reputation and the euro would be humbling, at the very least.
An excessive bail-out - one targeted at both our public debt crisis and banking crisis - could be more than humbling.
For a nation that had run so long and so hard to win this race, it would be humiliating.
A year ago, such an event would not have brought Ireland closer to the UK: then-Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy's reference to Ireland as part of an "arc of insolvency" had created too much bad blood.
David Cameron's government is a different affair.
Ireland will never leave the euro (at least as long as it exists).
But this week's events could result in Ireland taking a more cautious view of Europe, and a more positive view of Britain, in the future.
Marc Coleman is Economics Editor at Newstalk 106-108FM and Economics columnist with The Sunday Independent
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil was attacked in the closing stages of the Athens Olympics </div> Watching the ongoing coverage of Ireland's bail-out crisis, I now know how Vanderlei de Lima must have felt.
You don't remember Vanderlei de Lima?
His is a story that captures the Irish Republic's current situation as well as any other. And there is an Irishman involved too.
The place was Athens, 29 August 2004, and the Brazilian de Lima was leading the field in the Olympic marathon.
After a gruelling 35km (22 miles), de Lima had just 5km left to run with an excellent chance of winning when, bizarrely and out of nowhere, an eccentric and defrocked priest by the name of Father Niall Horan ran out from the crowds and pushed de Lima into the spectators.
The event gained notoriety around the world and Horan emerged as a contestant on Britain's Got Talent last year.
De Lima recovered and went on to finish the marathon, coming third instead of first.
For the Irish economy, the past two years have been a combination of a marathon and a gruelling assault course.
Getting to grips
Of course, the government has made mistakes.
But, compared with other governments, most notably Gordon Brown's Labour government, Ireland started getting to grips with its budgetary crisis early, implementing two emergency budgets in October 2008 and April 2009, followed by a budget last December in which public pay was cut.
Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan delivered two emergency budgets in 2008 and 2009 By a magnitude of 5% of GDP, Ireland has achieved more correction in its budget, in relative terms, than most EU countries put together.
Our debt level is, when you account for a pensions reserve fund, actually still lower than Britain's and this despite a decade of massive infrastructure investment.
Sadly, speculation - justified but overdone - that Ireland's bank bail-out costs would escalate beyond the state's ability to meet them has knocked us off balance.
Badly affected by a property bubble that burst, the estimated cost has been regarded by bond markets as a sign of the state of our economy and a burden that the government cannot bear.
It is no such thing.
Sure, the bail-out is a drag on our fiscal future. But its current estimate - which reports say has been borne out by scrutiny from EU and ECB officials - is around 35bn euros (£30bn; $47bn).
If spread over 10 years - and even if this rises - the annual cost is at or below half of what we spent each year on infrastructure investment.
Painful yes. Fatal no.
Healthy surpluses
As for the current state of the economy - the majority not constituted by the property market - exports rose by 7.8% in August, manufacturing output was up 12% in September, unemployment fell for the second month in a row in October and tax revenues overshot expectations in the same month.
Remarks by the German chancellor served to increase borrowing costs for the Irish Republic And, unlike Greece, Portugal and Spain, Ireland is heading for healthy balance of payments surpluses in coming years.
And did I mention that US investment in Ireland exceeds US investment in Brazil, Russia, India and China put together?
Unfortunately the Irish government has, as George W Bush might say, "misunderestimated" the early extent of bank losses, allowing doubt to emerge about its full extent.
Nor has the German government helped a whole bunch by appearing to threaten holders of sovereign bonds with "haircuts" [asset value reductions], another Bush-style miscommunication only clarified after last Friday's G20 summit.
Donkeys
Not that the media have been a great help either.
Media have conveyed an image "totally at odds" with Ireland's reality Images of people riding on donkeys or begging, together with one-sided dramatised narratives about young people leaving the country (our population has continued to grow well into the recession) may boost viewership, listenership and readership figures.
But they convey an image of Ireland totally at odds with the reality of a country that last week was voted by the UN human development index as the world's 5th most desirable place to live.
The UK was - sorry to point this out - 26th. Our GDP per capita remains 30% above the EU average and well above Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
And, unlike France, we are a country where - without riots - we can create agreement between our political parties on the need to get our house in order.
Where do we go from here?
While government and media have played a role, Ireland's current crisis is fundamentally made up of two interacting components - a fiscal crisis and a banking crisis.
We were three weeks away from solving the former by ourselves when doubts about the latter - the proverbial "Father Niall Horan" in this story - hit us for six.
Humiliating
Resorting to a bail-out in relation to our banking crisis might look like a smart move: big sister Angela facing down banks that her little Irish brother is too weak to.
But the damage to Ireland's reputation and the euro would be humbling, at the very least.
An excessive bail-out - one targeted at both our public debt crisis and banking crisis - could be more than humbling.
For a nation that had run so long and so hard to win this race, it would be humiliating.
A year ago, such an event would not have brought Ireland closer to the UK: then-Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy's reference to Ireland as part of an "arc of insolvency" had created too much bad blood.
David Cameron's government is a different affair.
Ireland will never leave the euro (at least as long as it exists).
But this week's events could result in Ireland taking a more cautious view of Europe, and a more positive view of Britain, in the future.
Marc Coleman is Economics Editor at Newstalk 106-108FM and Economics columnist with The Sunday Independent
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.