The Celtic Tiger In Distress

Ireland's 'Celtic Tiger' economy has been held up as a model of successful development in a globalized world, offering lessons for other late developing countries. This book interrogates the principal theoretical approaches which have been used to analyze the Celtic Tiger, particularly neo-classical economics, and finds them inadequate to capture its ambiguities or address its developmental deficit. Drawing on the work of Karl Polanyi in particular, the book captures more fully the ways in which the Irish state has made itself subservient to market forces.

This book challenges the widespread optimistic interpretation of Ireland's Celtic Tiger economy and, through a detailed examination of its economic basis and social impact, questions its sustainability.

Peadar Kirby is Senior Lecturer in the School of Communications, Dublin City University, Ireland.