Peter Dowdall: Natural zest of youth at the Bloom Festival

THE Celtic Tiger has a lot to answer for.

Apartment blocks in remote parts of rural Ireland, oversized houses on small sites and gardens created more to show off material wealth than with any feeling and often with little attention paid to good design and planting and more focus put on the cost.

The country is now hopefully coming out the other end of the downturn having paid the penance for national greed.