From bust to boom and back again expertly explained

Conor McCabe’s The Sins of the Father is the latest attempt to explain our economic collapse and is by far and away the best, writes Tom O’Connor

AT LEAST half a dozen books have examined Ireland’s economic collapse in the past three years. All have done a good job in explaining economic policy failure in regard to Fianna Fáil, the construction industry, ‘light touch’ regulation, and political cronyism. McCabe’s book deals with all these issues.

However, it does far more than that. It traces these developments since the foundation of the state and identifies key historical economic policy decisions which establish continuity between past and present. The breadth and compass of the book is breathtaking. It is head and shoulders above the other books and is a tour de force as a critical economic history of Ireland.