The Celtic Tiger by Ray Mac Sharry and Padraic White

Mercier Press, £12.99

A good read, but not a great read. Such is the Dunphy-esque conclusion that this book provokes. Good because it provides an insider's view of what will surely be seen as one of the most profound periods of transformation to occur in Irish history. Not great because both White and Mac Sharry fall into the trap of sounding self-congratulatory, and because White's chapters on his IDA hit squad are often boring and overly detailed.

It is Mac Sharry's insight into the political context within which the Celtic Tiger developed, that grabs your attention. His own role as Minister for Finance from 1987 gets more than enough attention, but he is at least generous in his praise of Fine Gael for accepting a policy of fiscal rigour with the infamous "Tallaght Strategy". This allowed the tightening of the belts that Charles Haughey had so patently failed to address in previous years.

One of the moments any Irish person will enjoy is the jointly authored chapter recounting the remarkable volte-face in the Economist's view of Ireland. In 1987 the magazine of choice for well-heeled global liberals, wrote an article strongly critical of government performance, under the heading: "How the Irish government spent the people out of the slump". By 1997 Ireland moved from class dunce to teacher's pet, earning itself a front-page splash, and plenty of drooling praise of our transformation from basket case to 'emerald tiger'.

But even since the book's first publication last year it is clear from the impact of recent global economic trends, that the Celtic Tiger is not immune to the odd cold. The work of White and his colleagues at the IDA has meant that Ireland is increasingly reliant on foreign investment and high technology industries, and as such is highly sensitive to the 'dot-bomb' induced slump in the US economy of late.

If the book's argument is true, (that pro-business government, low taxes, and a well-educated workforce underpin our economic strength), we are still well placed to weather the storms in world markets. Given our lack of material resources it is arguable that our only strategy was to market Ireland's human capital, and hope foreign multi-nationals bought into the dream.

As such we have a lot to be grateful for to the policy makers. What remains to be seen is whether the new environment will give birth to a thriving generation of indigenous technology companies with the capacity to make a long term impact on global markets.

Douglas Keatinge