Europe has seen many spectacular sto-ries in the past 20 years, but few can match Ireland's rise and fall. A depressed and indebted country in the late 1980s suddenly became the bubbly Celtic Tiger of the 1990s. Then the bubble just as suddenly burst, an experience that could cost Ireland as much as one-fifth of gdp annually in years to come. In 2010 the budget deficit will be at least 32% of gdp and the public debt is almost 100% of gdp. After a brief interlude of net immigration, the Irish are emigrating once again. Was the Celtic Tiger all an illusion? Fin-tan O'Toole, a veteran leftist writer, seems to think it was. His previous book, "Ship of Fools", examined the Irish property bubble, how it inflated and deflated, and seduced politicians, bankers and officials alike.
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机译：在过去的20年中，欧洲出现了许多壮观的故事，但很少有人能与爱尔兰的兴衰相提并论。 1980年代后期，一个萧条且负债累累的国家突然成为1990年代起泡的凯尔特虎。然后，泡沫突然破灭了，这种经历可能使爱尔兰在未来几年每年损失的国内生产总值高达五分之一。在2010年，预算赤字将至少占GDP的32％，公共债务几乎占GDP的100％。经过短暂的净移民，爱尔兰人再次移民。凯尔特虎是个幻觉吗？资深左派作家芬坦·奥图尔（Fin-tan O'Toole）似乎以为是。他以前的著作《傻瓜船》（Ship of Fools）研究了爱尔兰的房地产泡沫，它如何膨胀和缩小，并吸引了政客，银行家和官员。
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