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Navan Chamber would like to thank Joseph Daly and the team at Fidentia-Norwalk for providing these book reviews. Fidentia-Norwalk can be contacted via their website, www.fidentia-norwalk.ie
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Book
Title: THE POPE’S CHILDREN
Author: David McWilliams
Publisher: Macmillan, 2005
Review Date: 11/15/2006
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About
the Book:
The Pope’s Children is a clever, often times tongue in cheek examination of the most economically active segment of the Irish population – the real beneficiaries of the enormous success of the Irish economy over the last 2 decades. This economic grouping born in the 1970’s - named after the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland in 1979 – have dramatically impacted the socio-economic profile of every decade since their arrival, in much the same way as the Baby Boomers have in the US.
Review:
“The lines between the classes, between old and middle aged, urban and rural, native and foreign, rich and poor, are disappearing before our eyes. A working-class boy can move to middle-class Blackrock and enjoy Cappuccinos served by foreign nationals whose children are excellent hurlers”. Tom Dunne - Evening Herald
“A combination of pop sociology and accessible economics, it is a blitz of labels such as "Kells angels", "the baby belt" and "wonder-bra economics." John Byrne - Village
About the Authors:
David McWilliams is a former economist and banker as well as radio and TV chat show host. He is also a regular columnist in the Sunday Business Post and Irish Independent newspapers and is in considerable demand on the speaker circuit. He and his family split their time between homes in Ireland and Croatia.
Fidentia-Norwalk Opinion:
We have a confession to make here: we like, and perhaps even enjoy, this book in spite of itself. It is an investigation of the excitement and excesses of modern Ireland which by the last chapter has succumbed to its own excesses of description, anecdote and phrase coining. For most readers it may prove just too rich a dish to be digested in full and many will not make it past the ‘breakfast rolls and Lucozade’ to the rich pickings in the second half of the book.
Its many insights are indeed revelatory and undoubtedly bring considerable new understanding to the whirlwind of change taking place across the length and breath of the country. McWilliams is both literate and highly articulate with a gift for the kind of turn of phrase that makes its way into everyday usage with all the stealth of a Naas road cement truck at rush hour. He is equally a fastidious researcher with a knack for describing things, places and people we thought we knew well enough. He proves differently.
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