The Fighting Irish (that’s the Notre Dame university football team, since you asked) were in Dublin at the weekend, trouncing the US Navy in the Emerald Isle Classic. Other Americans have Ireland in their sights too. Franklin Templeton has emerged as the country’s biggest private sector creditor, holding €6bn of its sovereign debt at the end of June, or 7 per cent of total long-term government debt. The fund manager may have bought half of a €4.2bn bond issue in late July. That is a massive – and massively risky – vote of confidence in Ireland.
上週末，「戰鬥的愛爾蘭人」（The Fighting Irish，如果你要問的話，這是聖母大學(Notre Dame University)的橄欖球隊）在都柏林的「翡翠島經典賽」(Emerald Isle Classic)上完勝美國海軍。其他美國人也將目光對準了愛爾蘭。富蘭克林鄧普頓(Franklin Templeton)已成爲愛爾蘭最大的私人部門債權人，6月底時持有60億歐元的該國主權債務，佔政府總長期債務的7%。在7月下旬發行的42億歐元債券中，可能有半數被這家基金公司認購。這相當於爲愛爾蘭投下鉅額信任票，但風險也是不言而喻的。