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The problem is pretty complex and really was exacerbated because of the last government guaranteeing private debts held by the banks. The consensus is that this was a terrible idea and that they could have ringfenced people's deposits and dealt with it differently, but it was a EU led decision (Germany and France have large exposure to Irish debt). The same government for years encouraged a massive housing bubble (a house in Dublin went for €56million and was recently auctioned at €13 or so million, one site went for €400 million and is now valued at €30 million or something like that) and did nothing for a rainy day with all the new money they had. They pretty much denied that a rainy day would ever come. And they were pretty ineffectual with dealing with anything that cropped up in the lead up to the burst of the bubble.
Is the Euro that beneficial? Maybe not, but the EU is for Ireland, and staying in the EU is worth it in the eyes of a lot of people. Ireland was (and in a lot ways still is) a bit of a backwater and it was EU membership that really bucked that trend. And I don't think anyone sees us getting out of this on our own either, so we're doing what we're told. We do make our best art in times like these, so there is that… Ireland's in a weird place right now, the economy grew last quarter ahead of expectations but so did unemployment. What'll happen next, who knows?