Party days of the Celtic Tiger have left us with a nasty hangover

DAN O’BRIEN is probably one of the people that Bertie Ahern thought would be better off committing suicide.

Over the years he has been a rigorous critic of the way we handled our economy, and has been especially rough about the link between economics and party politics.

Of course (and this is what would get up Bertie’s nose) he lives in an ivory tower. But then, don’t all economists? They always seem to know what’s best, even when they’re completely wrong. But O’Brien’s expertise seems to really annoy people. Could it be that, depressingly, he saw through an awful lot of the hype and bluster about the Celtic Tiger before a lot of other people did – even if he wasn’t always right?