The news that the giant global investment manager Franklin Templeton is the biggest holder of Irish government debt outside of the IMF and EU has put the economy in a spotlight before a series of crucial ECB/EU meetings.

A leading financial publication which previously told international investors to pump their money into Ireland’s economic “bounce” is now telling them to take their profits and run.

Gambling huge sums of money on unsafe investments may have got this country into its mess, but one US mutual funds company has bet billions that Ireland can bounce back from the brink of disaster.