1. Ireland

2. Part of United Kingdom since 17 th century, southern part of the island obtained independence in 1921. Quit Commonwealth in 1961. English language Republic and Parliamentary Democracy English Common Law Part of European Common Market/European Union since 1973. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ei.html

3. Irish Miracle In 1990, Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Europe. In 2008, Ireland was one of the richest as measured by GDP per capita. What happened?

5. GDP per Capita, 2008 GGDC Total Economy Database

6. International Comparisons Project Researchers at U. of Pennsylvania periodically choose a representative world market basket and go to different countries to collect prices of that market basket of good. For a country, we calculate PPP = Purchasing Power Parity as the price of the market basket relative to price of the market basket in US. For any country, the exchange rate, S t, is the number of domestic dollars per US$. World Bank Conversion Factors

7. Direland

8. Severe Recession

10. Stock Market

11. Irish House Price Inflation http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/Ireland/Price-History

12. Financial Deterioration Financial Times Feature