India: From bust to boom in Ireland

international | miscellaneous | other press Sunday January 08, 2006 01:44 by VIDYA SUBRAHMANIAM

What Lies behind the glitter

The forthcoming Indian visit of Bertie Ahern, Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland, might be a good time to look at both the island country's dramatic transformation — from poverty to the celebrated status as Celtic tiger — and the problems attendant with growth.

Nineteenth-century undivided Ireland was a picture of devastation, stalked as it was by death and disease, food riots and mass eviction.

Speaking in the House of Lords in March 1846, Lord Broughman strongly defended the evictions: "... If (the landlord should) choose to stand on his right, the tenants must be taught by the strong arm of the law that they had no power to oppose or resist...property would be valueless and capital would no longer be invested in cultivation of the land if it were not acknowledged that it was the landlord's undoubted and most sacred right to deal with his property as he wished."

A century and half later, Ireland's rulers would appear to swear by much the same philosophy, judging by the robust official faith in the free market economy.

continued at: http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/01/08/stories/2006010800110200.htm