Ireland's coalition government of 2011 had promised a new politics. They would stand up to Europe, get the country working, reverse the culture of favours and jobs for the boys, stand up to vested interests and protect the vulnerable. But even before the ink was dry on a coalition deal, senior figures knew that not a word of their election rhetoric would be realized, and that the economic situation was on the brink of disaster. This is the story of trying to govern on the verge of ruin - the favours, the deals, the policy compromises - and of the previously unthinkable choices that had to be made.