On March 17 Britain finally managed what it had been trying to do for hundreds of years: as UK magazine The Economist recently pointed out, it killed the celebration of St Patrick's Day.
As a Catholic festival, the celebration of St Patrick's Day was always regarded as a nationalist, and therefore an antiBritish, occasion.
Naturally enough, this day rested uncomfortably with the British authorities during their prolonged occupation of Ireland. Eighty years after independence, The Economist states, British livestock achieved what the UK army was unable to do.
This year, St Patrick's Day celebrations were a dull and depressing affair. Public parks and golf clubs were closed. There were no marches, no sport - not even Gaelic football or hurling.
The extreme precautions taken by the government to ensure the highly contagious footandmouth disease does not get a toehold in the Irish Republic has resulted in severe restrictions on daily life.
At one stage, even church mass was put on hold. Although the most severe measures have been withdrawn, travel to England continues to be discouraged. And the best Irish rugby team in years now seems unlikely to be able to continue in this year's Six Nation rugby tournament.
The Irish, like most European countries, are a bit put out by what they regard as a rather lax attitude by the British authorities in their handling of the disaster.
Amazingly, to date the only outright criticism has been the comment of an Irish junior minister, who described Britain as the leper of Europe. For a country whose major exports, besides financial services, now appear to be arms and agricultural disease, this hardly ranks as harsh criticism.
It is strange that the British didn't handle this latest disaster more effectively, given that they now seem to be dealing with disasters on a regular basis. The footandmouth disaster pushed the various train disasters off the front pages.
For years mad cow disease lurked as a potential disaster and eventually, as a result of lax controls, threw the European beef industry into disarray.
Even the Royal Family, once held dear by people across the globe, has become something of a serialised comedy of disasters. The National Health Service appears to be dishevelled, and there are growing concerns about the perceived quality of Britain's third level education.
The country seems to have stopped investing in itself. Amazingly, it is estimated that 5 million people are living in poverty in this once great colonial power.
Juxtaposed against all of this is the continuing powerful role of the City of London, whose position as the world's second most powerful financial centre seems unassailable. Similarly sterling, outside the European Union, appears to enjoy an unassailable position of strength.
Could it be that the colonial empire has been shrunk back to a square mile adjacent to the Bank of England? Normally I would shirk from commenting or getting involved in another country's woes. It is illadvised and, of course, not politically correct.
But Britain is different. Because it has been involved in other countries' affairs over the centuries, etiquette almost demands that the subjects of all those other countries get involved in Britain's affairs. We are all part of one large, extended and disgruntled family.
For someone born in Ireland, the seeming collapse of this latter day empire - upon which once the sun never set and which ruled Ireland for 823 years - is met with mixed emotions, but primarily embarrassment.
Perhaps this is what the Gauls felt as they witnessed the collapse of the Roman Empire? When I was about seven years old and living in England, I was convinced the English were extremely clever - as soon as I told an English person I was Irish and one of seven children, they knew I was Catholic.
A few years later, living in Malaysia, I was impressed with the lovely big white buildings the British colonialists had contributed and was delighted that, as a result of their endeavours, everyone in the country spoke English.
Back in Dublin, studying economics at university, I lost some of my enthusiasm for the notion of being a colonial subject. A national inferiority complex meant there was little sign of Irish culture. Trips to London with friends who spoke with Irish accents provided disturbing insights into police attitudes.
Much later, this political awareness created the uncomfortable position of agreeing with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe when he queried England's position regarding the rule of law and democracy. It took 70 years for economic fate to work in Ireland's favour.
After 70 miserable years of independence in the mid1990s, Ireland hit the economic Big Time. Its Celtic Tiger economy has pushed gross national product per capita ahead of Britain's.
It seems every nation gets its turn, but it's sad to see how Britain, this once great economic powerhouse, has let itself go to seed.