Economic growth is small comfort - We’re not out of the woods yet
But that was the opportunity offered to former taoiseach Brian Cowen when he used his honorary doctorate acceptance speech to deliver a few home truths about EU policy during the great financial meltdown of 2007 onwards and the death of the Celtic Tiger in 2010
Mr Cowen apologised for the hardships created by the loss of a quarter of a million jobs, many of them in construction, but in a triumph of timing reminiscent of Napoleon’s observation that he preferred lucky generals, came the announcement that the pace of growth in the construction sector in Dublin is at its strongest for 16 years.
