In 1607 the great Irish scholar Geoffrey Keating, writing from exile in Bordeaux, wrote his poem "A Lament on the Sad State of Ireland."
It was prompted by the news of the departure of the Wild Geese chieftains Hugh O'Neill and O'Donnell from Irish shores, fleeing after the Battles of Kinsale, which brought the old Gaelic world to its end.
It was a defining moment in Irish history.
Some 400 plus years later we have reached another defining moment, but Keating's subsequent work as the chronicler of Irish history from the earliest times is a valuable touchstone.
Keating's history and the work of others showed the Irish from the Milesians on were no mean people.
For a country its size, it saved many of civilization's great medieval works, has created great literature, founded political dynasties such as the Kennedys through its exiled children, sorted out the Northern Irish problem in remarkable fashion, and plays an outsized role on the world stage through its massive footprint around the world.
It is that genius and ability now that must be called on in the new era when Ireland is down and out as it was in the wake of the exile of the great Celtic chieftains.
But Ireland must first lead by example and show itself worthy of Diaspora support.
The most important focus for Ireland now needs to be how they get out of the mess they are in not how they got into it.
The events of the past few weeks have made tough reading for the Diaspora.
Repeated assurances that the IMF was not going to intervene when the pages of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times were proclaiming otherwise has damaged Ireland's credibility remarkably.
The soft landing became the mother of all crashes. The Boston Herald ran a headline about a local American Ireland Fund dinner "Irish Bostonians raise cash for troubled Eire," making it sound like we were back in famine times.
It was like watching a horror movie frame by frame. The lack of transparency was incomprehensible to Irish living abroad.
At our website Irishcentral.com some were questioning whether it was safe to go to Ireland
Yet there was also a great deal of sympathy and understanding. America is a country used to booms and busts; personal bankruptcies are not especially shameful.
The country is full of men and women who started over and were more successful second time round.
There is no great shame in Ireland's situation. What would be shameful would be to forget to remember the failings that caused the entire spiral in the first place.
This is not a time for self flagellation. Ireland can dust itself off and get going again if they take certain steps.
Here is what appears obvious form an outsider's perspective.
The need for a truly reforming government has never been greater. Whoever gets elected in the upcoming election has arguably the most important job since the foundation of the state.
The list of needs, as perceived from the Diaspora, are evident. Complete political reform of a badly broken system is a top priority. Useless upper houses, unelected quangos, lax planning laws, jobs for the boys all have to go out the window.
The system that overwhelmingly allows family members to pass along seats also has to be looked at. Lists of talented individuals from varied backgrounds who would never normally enter elective politics must be somehow included in the electoral system. The need for a broader talent pool is deeply felt.
On the legal front, tribunals of inquiries into various scandals that run forever, lawyers who milk the system, defendants who never get a day in court should be done away with. The legal multi-millionaires living high on the hog off the taxpayer's dime have to be a thing of the past.
On the banking front, real reform has to include independent oversight, which would never again allow the excesses of the past decade. There should be no banks that are too big to fail, the exact same situation which got the U.S and Ireland into the same kind of difficulties.Ireland has an advantage over the U.S. here that it can enact such laws, which the U.S has failed miserably to do. What the U.S. did do was crack heads and force financial institutions to come together in expedited mergers when they were endangered, which led to the almost overnight Merrill Lynch/Bank of America merger, to name but one.
Ireland also needs to urgently rewrite its libel laws. Many of the shady operators of the past got away with their deeds because the press was constrained by ridiculous libel laws which, if they were they set aside, might have exposed the truth of institutions such as Anglo Irish Bank long before the damage was done.
If Ireland can create such a culture of transparency and open institutions they can be a light to the world once again.
The country has to hit the reset button; the Diaspora stands ready to help. The next government should take office mindful of the past but focused on the future, rather like the millions who left Ireland's shores over the century. They prospered and succeeded despite the odds. Ireland can too.