Book Launch: The Terrific Rise and Terrible Fall of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger: European Debt and the Future of U.S.-style Globalization

“Ireland is in the midst of a tremendous crisis,” opened David J. Lynch, Senior Writer with Bloomberg News at his book launch When the Luck of the Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient country and its Struggle to Rise Again. On November 9^th at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Lynch painted a historical mosaic of Ireland’s economic and social transformation over the past few decades. Told through five different individuals’ accounts of Ireland’s economic boom and bust, his story recounts Ireland’s once prosperous, export-driven economy and its devolution into export-dependency, alongside a subsequent housing bubble and construction boom.

Following brief introductory remarks by Kent Hughes, Director of the Program on America and the Global Economy, Lynch began by stating that he wanted to tell a story of the Irish people and Irish identity. Characterized by a distinct cultural duality, he professed, the Irish people- “brilliant failures” as described by Oscar Wilde, have “tremendous gifts without much to show for it.”  Prior to the mid 1990’s, Ireland had “two realities”- the “real society and a society of pretense”- an ostensibly socially conservative society in which divorce was illegal yet family dysfunction was clearly present. Lynch noted that the features of this society included a government rife with corruption and the near universal emigration of its educated labor force in search of employment opportunities.

Nearing the end of 1994, he went on, Ireland’s economy was paralyzed by an 18.5% unemployment rate, a debt to GDP ratio of approximately 133%, and a huge budget deficit. Describing the economic climate as bleak, compounded by violence in Belfast and other parts of the United Kingdom’s Northern Ireland, Lynch stated that Ireland’s social stagnation caused it to become a “country looking backward.”

Financial Follies and the Future

The following, Financial Follies and the Future, is the cover story for the December issue of the Wilson Center’s newsletter Centerpoint.

Overview and Summary:

The Woodrow Wilson Center is increasing its focus on the aftermath of the global financial crisis and on the domestic and international debate over how to prevent another economic debacle.

The issue is not new to the Center.  Last year, David Wessel, the economics editor of The Wall Street Journal researched and wrote his In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic while a Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center.  Working with the Center’s regional programs, the Center’s Program on America and the Global Economy (PAGE) has explored how other countries and regions dealt with the crisis.

As part of the renewed focus on finance, PAGE and Wilson Center on the Hill program hosted a meeting on Capitol Hill to discuss The Squam Lake Report: Fixing the Financial System, coauthored by fifteen leading financial economists.  On November 9, PAGE hosted David J. Lynch to discuss his just published When the Luck of the Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and its Struggle to Rise Again.  Lynch, who covered the global economy for USA Today and is now a Senior Writer for Bloomberg News, wrote his book while a Public Policy Scholar at the Center.

On December 8 and 9, the Asia Program (AP), with its partner in Tokyo, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, will host a conference to explore the future of Japan-U.S. partnership in strengthening the international economic and financial system.

Multimedia Now Available: When the Luck of the Irish Ran Out

On November 9, 2010 the Wilson Center’s Program on America and the Global Economy hosted David Lynch as he launched his first book, When The Luck of The Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and Its Struggle to Rise Again.

Click here to watch the video of this event.

Posted by: PAGE Staff

David Lynch is a Senior Writer for Bloomberg News. He is the author of the forthcoming “When The Luck of The Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and Its Struggle to Rise Again,” an account of modern Ireland’s journey from rags to riches and back again.

Photo Courtesy of David Hawxhurst: Woodrow Wilson Center

Updated David Lynch Book Launch Invitation

You Are Invited

The Program on America and the Global Economy (PAGE) Presents a Book Launch:

The Terrific Rise and Terrible Fall of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger: European debt and

The Future of U.S.-style Globalization

Featuring: David J. Lynch, Senior Writer, Bloomberg News

Moderated by: Kent Hughes, Director, Program on America and the Global Economy, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

David J. Lynch, 50, is a senior writer for Bloomberg news.  He covered the global economy for USA TODAY from 1994 until 2010. He joined the paper as a staff writer in the Money section before becoming the founding bureau chief in both London and Beijing. Lynch covered the war in Kosovo and was an embedded reporter with the U.S. Marines in the invasion of Iraq. In 2001, he became the first journalist from USA TODAY to be selected for the prestigious Nieman fellowship at Harvard University. He has reported from more than 50 countries.

He is the author of the forthcoming “When The Luck of The Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and Its Struggle to Rise Again,” an account of modern Ireland’s journey from rags to riches and back again.  An experienced public speaker, Lynch has made numerous television appearances on BBC and Sky News in London and C-SPAN and PBS in the United States. Before joining USA TODAY, Lynch covered the aerospace industry for The Orange County Register in southern California, where he won several awards. In the 1980s, he was the editor of a trade publication focused on national security issues in Washington, D.C., called Defense Week.

Lynch has a master’s degree in international relations from Yale University and a B.A. from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct. He lives outside Washington with his wife Kathleen and their three sons.

Tuesday, November 9th:  9:30 to 11:00 a.m.  6^th floor conference room, Woodrow Wilson Center

RSVP (acceptances only) to page@wilsoncenter.org

The Woodrow Wilson Center is located in the Ronald Reagan Building at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. (Federal Triangle Metro stop on the Blue/Orange Line). For a map and directions see: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/

Please bring photo ID and allow time for the security checkpoint.