Product Description

One of the poorest states in the European Union during the 1980s, the Republic of Ireland's economy has grown rapidly in the 1990s, despite an overwhelming dependence on foreign capital. Echoing the 'tiger' economies of East Asia, this has led many to dub Ireland the Celtic Tiger. In this original critique by one of Ireland's leading writers on economics, Denis O'Hearn sets Ireland's economic success in an international context and contrasts and compares its growth with the other 'tiger' economies.O'Hearn addresses some difficult but crucial questions, such as whether Ireland's apparent success is self-sustaining and what lessons can be learned from the downturn of the comparable East Asian economies. The study focuses on the importance for Ireland's rising economy of three US-led industrial sectors: computers, electrical engineering and pharmaceuticals. O'Hearn assesses who benefits and who loses from such foreign capital-led growth - in the context of working conditions, poverty, consumption and inequality - and argues that the country's apparently significant economic achievements are dominated by growth in corporate profits and professional incomes, but that there is no evidence, as yet, of 'trickle-down' to other sectors.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #991937 in Books
• Published on: 1998-08-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'Politicians ought to take a few pages [of Inside the Celtic Tiger] before breakfast every day.' Books Ireland'A stimulating and provocative account of the dilemmas of development in an era of globalization.' Irish Journal of Sociology

About the Author
Denis O'Hearn is a Reader in Sociology at The Queen's University of Belfast. He is a former Fulbright Professor at University College Dublin and an Associate Professor of Sociology at The University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is editor of the Irish Journal of Sociology (USA) and has written widely on economic development for a range of Irish and US journals.

Customer Reviews

Well written, balanced, and thought-provoking.
A well written, balanced, and thought-provoking account of the Irish economic phenomenon. O'Hearn confirms that government intervention has played an important role in boosting Ireland's growth. The IDA's gamble in offering huge incentives to Intel to locate near Dublin, for instance, has paid off in a big way. But he tempers analysis by drawing attention to the way that misleading GDP numbers have overstated the Irish economy's true rate of growth.

Eamonn Fingleton, author of "In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, is the Key to Future Prosperity" ( to be published by Houghton Mifflin in June 1999).

Well written, balanced, and thought-provoking.
A well written, balanced, and thought-provoking account of the Irish economic phenomenon. Denis O'Hearn confirms that government intervention has played an important role in boosting Ireland's growth. The IDA's gamble in offering huge incentives to Intel to locate near Dublin, for instance, has paid off in a big way. But he tempers his analysis by drawing attention to the way that misleading GDP numbers have overstated the Irish economy's true rate of growth. Displaying an exceptionally well informed understanding of the East Asian tigers, he correctly concludes that Ireland's effort to build its economic prowess, while impressive by European standards, falls short in many respects compared to that of nations like Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. Eamonn Fingleton, author of "In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, is the Key to Future Prosperity" ( to be published by Houghton Mifflin in June 1999).