Ship of Fools

How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger

Fintan O'Toole, Fintan O'Toole, Laurence Mackin , Kathy Sheridan

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English

Faber & Faber
23 August 2010

History; British & Irish history; Economic history

Between 1995 and 2007, the Republic of Ireland was the worldwide model of successful adaptation to economic globalisation. The success story was phenomenal: a doubling of the workforce; a massive growth in exports; a GDP that was substantially above the EU average. Ireland became the world's largest exporter of software and manufactured the world's supply of Viagra.

The factors that made it possible for Ireland to become prosperous - progressive social change, solidarity, major State investment in education, and the critical role of the EU - were largely ignored as too sharply at odds with the dominant free market ideology. The Irish boom was shaped instead into a simplistic moral tale of the little country that discovered low taxes and small government and prospered as a result.

There were two big problems. Ireland acquired a hyper-capitalist economy on the back of a corrupt, dysfunctional political system. And the business class saw the influx of wealth as an opportunity to make money out of property. Aided by corrupt planning and funded by poorly regulated banks, an unsustainable property-led boom gradually consumed the Celtic Tiger.

This is, as Fintan O'Toole writes, 'a good old-fashioned jeremiad about the bastards who got us into this mess'. It is an entertaining, passionate story of one of the most ignominious economic reversals in recent history.

By: Fintan O'Toole, Fintan O'Toole, Laurence Mackin, Kathy Sheridan
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 128mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 205g
ISBN: 9780571260751
ISBN 10: 0571260756
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 23 August 2010
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Fintan O'Toole is an acclaimed historian, biographer and critic. He is also Ireland's most respected and controversial political commentator, whose name was almost a term of abuse among the politicians who presided over the economic debacle of recent years. His books include White Savage (Faber and Faber), A Traitor's Kiss and Meanwhile Back at the Ranch.