And oil of a sudden, the island of saints and scholars was no more

THE other papers presented to this conference on The Disappeared Civilisations deal with historic or pre-historic cultures which became extinct: Easter Island and the Inca empire in Peru among them.

By contrast, the paper which follows addresses the extinction of a nation, economy and culture which was powerful within living memory. Some of my older colleagues can even remember a point, towards the end of the 20th century, when Ireland was known as the Celtic Tiger.

Indeed, it’s timely that this conference is happening at this time.