The definitive account of the tumultuous events that led to Ireland going broke in 2010 From the night the Irish government guaranteed the debts of Irish banks in September 2008 Ireland was on a one-way road to ruin. In How Ireland Really Went Bust Matt Cooper, journalist, broadcaster and No 1 bestselling author of Who Really Runs Ireland?, describes the events that climaxed with the arrival of the heavy hitters from the IMF and the ECB in Government Buildings in November 2010 - and he assesses the fall-out of that fateful period in Ireland's recent history. Drilling deep into the human dramas, the business catastrophes, the economic collapse and the unprecedented political upheaval that characterised the time after the bank bailout, Cooper gets to the heart of what really happened. And he investigates the background of the key decisions and reveals why they were taken, and by whom, to throw new light on a period that changed Ireland forever. 'A considerable piece of work ... read it and weep' Irish Times 'Cooper's previous bestseller Who Really Runs Ireland? was an authoritative and hugely readable account that told you everything you needed to know about who's who in Ireland and the golden circles that linked business and politics for generations. How Ireland Really Went Bust is equally impressive' Irish Independent 'A lively commentary with nuggets galore ... not just readable, but full of surprises' Sunday Independent '[A] brilliant achievement that should be read by anyone interested in the state of the nation' Evening Herald 'Up-to-the-minute and exhaustive ... [Cooper] knows the players and they talk to him' Sunday Business Post

As late as 2007, Anglo Irish Bank was a darling of the markets, internationally recognized as one of the fastest growing financial institutions in the world. By 2008, it was bust. The Irish government's hopeless attempts to save Anglo have led the state to ruin - culminating in a punitive IMF bailout in late 2010 and threatening the future of the euro. Now, for the first time, the full story of the Anglo disaster is being told - by the journalist who has led the way in coverage of the bank and its many secrets. Drawing on his unmatched sources in and around Anglo, Simon Carswell of the Irish Times shows how the business model that brought Anglo twenty years of spectacular growth was also at the heart of its - and Ireland's - downfall. He paints a vivid and disturbing picture of life inside Anglo - the credit committee meetings, the lightning-quick negotiations with property developers, the culture of lavish entertainment for politicians and regulators - and of the men who presided over its dizzying rise and fall: Sean FitzPatrick, David Drumm, Willie McAteer and many others. This is not only the first full account of the Anglo disaster; it will also be the definitive one.

Few countries have been as dramatically transformed in recent years as Ireland. Once a culturally repressed land shadowed by terrorism and on the brink of economic collapse, Ireland finally emerged in the late 1990s as the fastest-growing country in Europe, with the typical citizen enjoying a higher standard of living than the average Brit. Just a few years after celebrating their newly-won status among the world's richest societies, the Irish are now saddled with a wounded, shrinking economy, soaring unemployment, and ruined public finances. After so many centuries of impoverishment, how did the Irish finally get rich, and how did they then fritter away so much so quickly? Veteran journalist David J. Lynch offers an insightful, character-driven narrative of how the Irish boom came to be and how it went bust. He opens our eyes to a nation's downfall through the lived experience of individual citizens: the people responsible for the current crisis as well as the ordinary men and women enduring it.

The story of the elite who led Ireland from bust to boom ... and back to bust again Having money and not having it; making it and losing it; using it and misusing it; giving it and taking it ... this is the story of Ireland during the boom, described in jaw-dropping detail in Who Really Runs Ireland? Leading journalist Matt Cooper identifies the most influential people in Ireland during the Celtic Tiger era, describes how they interacted with each other to mutual benefit, and reveals who were the few to retain their power amid the debris arising from the bursting of the Irish economic bubble. 'Highly accessible and akin to a good thriller ... fascinating ... compelling' Sunday Tribune 'Hugely entertaining as well as instructive' Irish Independent 'Impressive and eminently readable' Irish Times 'An eye-opener ... you might be driven to tears of rage' David McCullagh, RTE 'The detail is riveting ... and a lot of it illuminating'Irish Examiner 'The scale of Cooper's research is highly impressive ... an in-depth reference guide to folly and hubris' Sunday Business Post 'Complex but surprisingly reader-friendly ... a rattling, and frequently horrifying, read' Hot Press 'Superbly readable and insightful ... a must-have' Irish Mail on Sunday

Contemporary Irish Documentary Theatre is the first anthology of Irish documentary drama. It features five challenging plays by Irish writers, and one by an international author, interrogating and commenting on crucial events of Irish history and of the diaspora, with introductory essays by established academics. Together these plays represent the most innovative development in contemporary Irish theatre and illuminate the social and political realities of contemporary Ireland. The first two plays, of 2010 and 2013, deal with scandals of clerical and institutional abuse, and use as source material the Ryan Report of 2009, and the documents from the 2008 Irish Bank Guarantee. The next two, of 2014 and 2013, concern interpretations of the most iconic moment of Irish history: the Easter Rising. The first of these is based on published statements of participants in the event and the second on the lived experiences of those in the contemporary Republic whose founding ideals have not been realized . The last two plays, of 2015 and 2016, widen the view to the history of the Irish in the diaspora: one retelling the history of emigration to England based on published research material; and the other tracing Roger Casement's experiences in the Amazon and his subsequent participation in the Easter Rising using extracts from his diaries and other writings. The plays included and discussed are: No Escape by Mary Raftery Guaranteed by Colin Murphy Of This Brave Time by Jimmy Murphy History by Grace Dyas My English Tongue, My Irish Heart by Martin Lynch The Two Deaths of Roger Casement by Domingos Nunez

This major new account of the politics of modern Ireland offers a rigorous analysis of the forces which shaped both how the Irish state governed itself from the period since 1987 and how it lost its economic sovereignty in 2010.

This book explores the emergence of a new architecture of corporate enforcement in Ireland. It is demonstrated that the State has transitioned from one contradictory model of corporate enforcement to another. Traditionally, the State invoked its most powerful weapon of state censure, the criminal law, but was remarkably lenient in practice because the law was not enforced. The contemporary model is much more reliant on cooperative measures and civil orders, but also contains remarkably punitive and instrumental measures to surmount the difficulties of proving guilt in criminal cases. Though corporate and financial regulation has become an area of significant interest for academics, researchers and those with an interest in corporate affairs, this sudden surge of interest lacks a tradition of scholarship or any deep empirical and contextual analysis in Ireland. This book provides that foundation. It is likely to stimulate an extensive conversation on corporate regulation and governance in Ireland. It is also likely to provide a platform for researchers further afield with an interest in comparative study with Ireland.