For the better part of three decades Ireland has run two industries that amount to the same thing. The first is a tax jurisdiction designed to attract American multinationals; the second is a cultural export operation designed to make Americans feel good about Ireland. Both require the same posture of facing outwards, being easily understood, being charming, and not complicating things.

This is because the Celtic Tiger needed foreign direct investment, and foreign direct investment needed a story; that Ireland is friendly, English-speaking, harmless and fun. Come build your European headquarters here, where the craic is mighty and the pints are fresh – just don’t look too hard at the housing.

And it worked, at least on paper. But behind the shop front, the country that this money was supposed to build has not been built. The International Institute for Management Development has found that Ireland’s basic infrastructure now ranks 44th out of 69 countries, down six places in a single year; the Fiscal Advisory Council puts the infrastructure stock at 25 per cent below the average of high-income European peers; and business electricity prices are the highest in the EU. A country that styled itself as the most efficient gateway to Europe cannot reliably power itself, house its workers, or provide them with a functioning public health service.

In the same footsteps, the cultural side of this bargain was no less transactional. The Ireland that counted, and was taken seriously, was always the Ireland that made sense somewhere else. The literary novels that translated for London and the prestige dramas........

© The Irish Times