Articles: Irish Economy %

The only thing keeping Irish bond prices from collapsing is the assumption that Germany will eventually pay. More

Here’s something bold. Not only is the European economy not going to recover but a secondary depression is now on the cards. The putative European recovery has evaporated – as anyone with a grasp of Leaving Cert economics would have forecast a few years ago given the policy mix adopted. More

The most striking aspect of racing through the English countryside from London to Bristol is not the green and pleasant land of William Blake’s poetry, but the abundance of Tescos. After every 20 or so minutes of countryside, a massive out-of-town giant Tesco store announces each major train station. William Blake evoked the green pastoral land of rural England as an idyll – a place where the English could build their new Jerusalem in stark contrast to what he described as the “dark satanic mills” of the industrial revolution that he felt were destroying the English character with excessive commercialism. More

RTE’s most recent Prime Time looked at the cost of the economic crisis – and who should pay it. Myself and Tim Pat Coogan, among others, took part in an interesting discussion. More

Freelancing. Being your own boss, having a portfolio career, living on your wits, independence, having no one to answer to – this all sounds good, doesn’t it? And it can be. The other side of this world is insecurity, worry, constant fretting about the next gig, undercutting everyone – starting with yourself – to get gigs, spoofing, hustling, not being able to plan and recurring financial anxiety, not to mention fear of tomorrow. More

My children were born in Belfast. At the first pre-natal class, I was the only dad in the maternity ward in deepest east Belfast not in a Rangers tracksuit. Apart from that, the whole process was quite normal, apart from the “born-again” midwife whose obsession with “saved” people seemed a bit inappropriate when our daughter was only a matter of minutes old. More

Ireland is a country trying to compete with the rest of the world from a position of weakness and that weakness is, in the main, due to choices made by the state. More

“Hi our FHC on this Sunday. Silly me assumed hairdresser open at 9, and thought the two of us cud go up then. I know very stupid to assume anything about communions. Would anyone know a hairdresser who works on Sundays?? We r in S county Dublin?Thax - Shnoggi” More

Have we learnt nothing? The most depressing – and I mean depressing – news last week was that useless, unproductive houses in upmarket Dublin are now making well over the guide prices at auctions, at a time when useful, productive SMEs are going to the wall for want of credit and working capital. After everything we have been through, this is pathetic. It means that the same banking and property cabal that got us into this mess is flexing its dangerous muscles again. More

A friend of mine, a small business owner, is typical of many thousands of cash-strapped entrepreneurs in Ireland at the moment. More