ah, b’jesus
If you think we’ve got it bad spare a thought for the Irish. Following the banking collapse of 2008, people joked that the only difference between Iceland and Ireland was one letter and a few days. This, as it turns out, may well have been too kind!
The Irish economy has been all but wrecked. The Celtic Tiger has witnessed its GDP fall by 17%, representing the deepest and swiftest contraction of any western economy since the Great Depression of the early 1930s. The Irish Government has revealed that the cost of bailing out its stricken financial sector will rise to the tune of £39bn, with some £25bn alone going to the lax lending and profligate Anglo Irish Bank. Supporting the banks will cost in excess of £8500 for every man, woman and child in the country. Ouch.
At the height of the long 1990-2007 boom, average property prices in Dublin were higher than in London. Having now fallen by over 40%, it is expected that more than 100,000 workers are to leave to find jobs abroad. In recent years, the Irish diaspora has headed home to share in the new prosperity but now we see a return to the emigration which used to be as much a part of the Irish experience as enjoying the craic and a drop o’ the black stuff.
