Austerity & recovery in Ireland: Europe's poster child and the great recession

摘要

The quote by Trichet exemplifies the most common narrative on Ireland during the Eurozone crisis. According to it, Ireland took the austerity medicine, cut the spending, rescued the banks by guaranteeing their bonds, did not protest much and reduced its debts. Now, it seems that Ireland is rising again with economic growth and without new debts into a prosperous future. That this is neither the complete nor the true story, is the main message of the edited volume by William K. Roche, Philip J. O'Connell and Andrea Prothero. The three editors compiled an impressive stock of Irish social scientists to look at Ireland in and after the crisis more closely. Each of the 17 chapters is dedicated to a specific topic - from banking regulation to political reforms and migration - examining the past and the current state of it and additionally, assessing the impact of austerity on the recovery of Ireland.