One of the younger scions of the Mac Uaid clan, and the only one of her generation with a postgraduate qualification, got herself sacked after asking to be paid the minimum wage in a pub. Things are definitely looking rough. This new book from Socialist Democracy looks at how the Celtic Tiger got sick and offers some answers. You can pre-order your copy.

In many ways Ireland has been a test bed for the working out of the crisis of modern capitalism. In the guise of the Celtic Tiger it was the most exuberant and uncontrolled of the neoliberal models. After the crash it was the model of savage austerity coupled with appeasement of the banks. Now, quietly, on Black Thursday, 30^th September, it has become the first economy where capitalist strategy hit the rocks and left Ireland and Europe facing into the abyss.

The inner mechanisms of the crisis, the incapacity of the Irish gombeen capitalists, the capitulation of the union bureaucracy are all subject to a Marxist analysis in “Ireland’s Credit Crunch”. The book, by Keating, Morrison and Corrigan, is priced at £6 and is available online from Resistance Books via Amazon and from www.socialistdemocracy.org. It is available from the end of October.