A Toothless Tiger

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Boom has turned to bust even more drastically in the Republic of Ireland than in Britain. Not only has the Celtic Tiger been defanged by the financial meltdown, but it is wounded, and fears for its survival in the darkening global economic jungle. A cocksure and hedonistic generation which had known only good times-the so-called Celtic cubs-is getting a small taste of the hardship and anxiety its ancestors endured over centuries. The Irish economy will shrink by up to 4 per cent this year; unemployment could rise to 12 per cent by 2010, bringing the jobless total to well over 200,000. The Hibernian housing bubble has burst and inflows to the Dublin exchequer have fallen sharply.