'The myths of the Celtic Tiger are not much use to us now. Sweeney's vivid and lucid book reveals the collective challenges that must be met if the success is to continue.'  Fintan O'Toole

One of the poorest countries in Europe just twenty years ago, Ireland is now one of the richest in the world. The numbers of jobs doubled in less than 20 years, living standards increased very substantially and an economic boom was sustained from 1994 to 2007.

Here, Paul Sweeney, the author of the first book on the Celtic Tiger ten years ago asks: Why did Ireland, a basket case economy and poor for so long, suddenly take off?  He is assisted with the insights of An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Peter Sutherland, Chairman of BP & Goldman Sachs International, as well as other leading business people, trade unionists and perceptive observers.

The book also provides the reader with the most up-to-date hard facts on the scale of Ireland’s economic achievement, together with an analysis of the reasons for the success and of what are the building blocks of prosperity for all countries.

A must read for anybody who wants to understand how Ireland was so successful in such a short space of time and for those who are trying to understand  what a country can do to generate  of economic prosperity.

ISBN: 9781905494712; Trade PB; 233 pp; January 2008