Excerpt
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): And to the economy of another European nation, Ireland.
Good times turned sour during the worldwide financial crisis. But now there are signs of a turnaround driven by locally grown businesses.
Ray Suarez reports from Dublin.
RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): For 15 years, Western Europe had few economies like Ireland's. From the early '90s to 2008, the economy grew at breakneck speed.
When the global recession hit, the bubble burst. The Celtic Tiger was declawed. Unemployment shot up. Countless for-sale and for-rent signs sprouted even on Dublin's most desirable streets. Construction projects just stopped. The workers were sent home, the carcasses of buildings left to sit for years, maybe never to be finished.
Talk to the Irish today about what happened, and you get a mixture of wonder, sadness, and regret.
GARETH OWEN, Ireland: It was a little bit unsustainable. Maybe we were living in kind of cuckoo land a little bit.
RAY SUAREZ: From a working mother.
NICOLE HOLLEY, Ireland: I only go out and buy something when I really need it, instead of seeing something and impulse buying. Don't do that anymore.
RAY SUAREZ: From a trade union leader.
DAVID BEGG, Irish Congress of Trade Unions: We have had an incredibly severe retrenchment of the Irish economy over the last five years or so, such that we have lost just short of a fifth of our total economic size.
RAY SUAREZ: From an accountant.
CARROLL TURNDOWN, Ireland: A lot of the kids have emigrated now. We have lost a lot of highly skilled young people, and that's as a result of the downturn.
RAY SUAREZ: And from a high-tech executive.
KARL FLANNERY, Storm Technology LTD: And people were becoming -- or felt they were much wealthier than they were in reality. So there was a lot of investment in property particularly in the Irish economy. And I think now, when we look back on that, we look at -- that looks like a huge waste of money, which it was.
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