Ship of fools : how stupidity and corruption sank the Celtic Tiger
(Book)

The "Irish economic miracle" was built on good old-fashioned subsidies (from the European Union) and the simple fact that until the 1980s Ireland was by the standards of the developed world so economically backward that the only way was up. And as it began to catch up to European and American averages, the boom lured in investors, the Irish government deregulated and all but abandoned financial oversight, and a great Irish financial ceilidh began. It would last for a decade. When the global financial crisis of 2008 arrived it struck Ireland harder than anywhere. How Ireland managed to achieve such a spectacular implosion is a story of corruption, carelessness, and venality.--From publisher's description.