Viewpoint: Pasture the bulls ...

Ireland spent much of the boom years being content with mediocrity, writes Paul Byrne. In every field, from construction, to art, to education, to financial management, things were too often ‘good enough’ as opposed to being as good as they could be.

Apartment blocks that later failed fire regulations, television that scraped the bottom of the barrel and tried palely to imitate British alternatives, bars that sold terrible pints at terrible prices, and took your money without saying thank you … Ireland did not ‘go mad’. Instead it became resigned to amateurism.

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