Analysing the distinctive structure of the economy that it created requires careful analysis of good accounting data, both national and private. Some distortions have undoubtedly resulted in the process of globalization, not least the excessive dependence in the last number of years on foreign borrowing and its consequences.
These distortions reflect the phenomenal ability of globalization to generate a rapid amplification of changes that would occur slowly in a closed and inward-looking economy and society. The rapid leap forward of the Celtic Tiger period was a favourable amplification; the credit and construction bubble a disastrous one.