System failing society

A new collection of essays from Irish academics attempts to put our financial crisis into perspective, but there is still a palpable anger in the book over what was allowed to happen, writes Brian O’Grady

THERE are now more than a dozen books for sale covering the events that caused Ireland’s once booming economy to crash and sink beneath the waves of world recession.

Ever since the first economic icebergs were spotted in its path three years ago (and despite the many warnings of the risks that were there), the inability of government, business or state institutions to steer the economy clear of disaster has since provoked an inevitable fascination with what went wrong and what caused so much to be lost in so short a period.