PEADAR KIRBY is Professor of International Politics and Public Policy, and director of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge in Society, at the University of Limerick. He is author of The Celtic Tiger in Distress, Introduction to Latin America and Vulnerability and Violence.

• List of Tables Preface Acronyms and Abbreviations Introduction: The Collapse of the Irish Model PART I: THE CELTIC TIGER AND ITS AFTERMATH Before the Tiger Assessing the Boom Best of Times? PART II: DIFFERENT READING OF THE CELTIC TIGER Dominant Reading Critical Explanations Elaborating Theory PART III: IRELAND'S POLITICAL ECONOMY State: Developmental or Competition? Market: Neo-liberalism Irish-style Society: Vulnerability and Control PART IV: HAS THE IRISH MODEL A FUTURE? Options Appendix Bibliography Index

'Celtic Tiger in Collapse may well be a first step in learning the lessons of the past and coming to grips with what is needed in the changed circumstances in which we now find ourselves.' - Eamonn Maher, The Irish Catholic