The lesson: The public sector no longer has a monopoly on government.

CNN: California discovers gold again

But a final lesson from this week's votes is that it is no longer any good seeking to impose reform from outside, whether via the commission, the European Central Bank in Frankfurt or preaching by Britain's Tony Blair.

ECONOMIST: And the one that should live on

The other lesson of Ireland, many would say, is that the longer a government fails to face up to the true weakness of its banks, the bigger the eventual costs of the remedy.

BBC: Will Spain suffer an Irish bust?

One other interesting tidbit from HTC's presentation was the company's statement that it learnt its lesson from the Tattoo, which had a resistive touchscreen, and no longer plans on offering anything but capacitive displays in the future.

ENGADGET: HTC Wildfire hands-on (update: video!) Hands-on