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Sins of the Fathers: Tracing The Decisions That Shaped The Irish Economy
The questions surrounding how the Irish economy was brought to the brink - who was to blame, and who should pay for these mistakes - have been rightly debated at length. But beyond this very legitimate exercise, there are deeper questions that need to be answered. These questions relate to why we made the decisions we did, not just in the last 10 years, but over the last 80. How did certain industries become prominent at the expense of others, banking as opposed to fisheries, international markets as opposed to indigenous industry and job creation? Are our problems structural in nature, and most importantly, what do we need to know to make sure that this crisis does not happen again? These are the questions set by this book. It will look at the development of the Irish economy over the past eight decades, and will argue that the 2008 financial crisis, up to and including the Imf bailout of 2010 and the subsequent change of government, cannot be explained simply by the moral failings of those in banking or property development alone. The problems are deeper, more intricate, and more dangerous if we remain unaware of them, but also potentially avoidable in the future if we break the cycle.
224 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 14, 2013
Well-constructed, clear and digestible potted history of the economic layout of the Irish republic from 1922-present. Strange title, but understand the reason it is used. Read it in London on a 2-day trip...a clear overview on the callousness, cynicism and shabbiness of the Irish State's civic history, and that's before the crash of 2008. Returned to Ireland and sensed that a small part of my feelings for this place had died while I was away. Non-political, and not to be lumped in as one of the current crop of landfill-recession books available in any Irish bookstore.
March 6, 2024
Being a former colony, the economic trajectory of Ireland is very interesting to me. So, when I saw ‘Sins of the Father’, I knew I had to read it. Put briefly, it is an in-depth discussion of the historical & political decisions behind the current structure & distribution of power in the Irish economy. This is done by looking at the evolution of various sectors, culminating in how these processes foregrounded the financial crisis & the response to it.
I was mostly interested in it’s analysis of the financial sector, given its position as the home of global capital. How did Ireland get here? @conormaccaba finds this answer in the financial architecture adopted after independence, when Ireland tied its currency to the (stronger) Sterling, predetermining most of its economic policy & weakening industrial base (due to cheap imports & internal deflation). To keep this afloat required relying on foreign capital for industrialisation in the 1950s, which in turn led to the offering of drastic tax concessions, in the hope that the corporations will usher in diversified industrialisation.
While Ireland managed to attract foreign capital, due to lack of incentive structures to facilitate linkages, there was minimal benefit to the broader economy. Ignoring these shortcomings, this economic model has been maintained because “it is by servicing these exporters that banks and commercial property developers make their profit”
I must admit that McCabe’s writing, his oscillation between different periods, was hard to follow for someone not as familiar w/ Irish political history. Additionally, I would have also liked a detailed discussion of the effects of incorporation in the euro-zone as well as a section looking at possible alternatives that were missed by ‘the fathers’ & how that would have panned out.
Despite this, I found the book to be a candid & comprehensive excavation of the political foundations of Ireland’s economic architecture. It’s discussion of the potential demerits of FDI, similar to Ndongo Sylla’s analysis of the CFA Franc zone, offers a cautionary for countries clamouring for it now
(I think I did a better job of reviewing this on my blog: https://open.substack.com/pub/mquzama...)
I was mostly interested in it’s analysis of the financial sector, given its position as the home of global capital. How did Ireland get here? @conormaccaba finds this answer in the financial architecture adopted after independence, when Ireland tied its currency to the (stronger) Sterling, predetermining most of its economic policy & weakening industrial base (due to cheap imports & internal deflation). To keep this afloat required relying on foreign capital for industrialisation in the 1950s, which in turn led to the offering of drastic tax concessions, in the hope that the corporations will usher in diversified industrialisation.
While Ireland managed to attract foreign capital, due to lack of incentive structures to facilitate linkages, there was minimal benefit to the broader economy. Ignoring these shortcomings, this economic model has been maintained because “it is by servicing these exporters that banks and commercial property developers make their profit”
I must admit that McCabe’s writing, his oscillation between different periods, was hard to follow for someone not as familiar w/ Irish political history. Additionally, I would have also liked a detailed discussion of the effects of incorporation in the euro-zone as well as a section looking at possible alternatives that were missed by ‘the fathers’ & how that would have panned out.
Despite this, I found the book to be a candid & comprehensive excavation of the political foundations of Ireland’s economic architecture. It’s discussion of the potential demerits of FDI, similar to Ndongo Sylla’s analysis of the CFA Franc zone, offers a cautionary for countries clamouring for it now
(I think I did a better job of reviewing this on my blog: https://open.substack.com/pub/mquzama...)
January 22, 2013
The author sets himself the task of stepping back far enough to be able to look at, in overview, Ireland's post-independence economy. The key features he manages to pinpoint are the maintaining, in the early years, of business-as-usual with Britain as well as tailoring economic policy to adhere to an agenda set by the banking sector, the large cattle-fattening operations (the ranchers!) and builders / developers. The generous support which the new state lavished on these players was also made available, in later years, to multinational corporations. The book here manages a good explanation why and how this later 'foreign direct investment' could never substitute for developing a productive economy e.g. manufacturing, food-growing, processing industries.
This book is a great one-stop-shop for facts and figures around Irish agriculture, industry and finance; around a reputed Irish obsession with home ownership; and around an astonishing giveaway of a treasure in natural resources - fish stocks, gold, zinc, oil, gas and more.
Everything ties in nicely when it comes to making sense of the economic disaster of late 2008 and after. The enormous influence exerted on institutional politics by the banking and developer sectors (termed 'brown envelope' politics in Ireland) saw to it that enormous gambling losses built up in these sectors were covered by mega-billion bailouts well before the IMF arrived to take over the steering of the economy.
'Sins of the Father' is a superb chronicle of the steps which led to the 'perfect storm' now lashing the country; unemployment, emigration, cutbacks to services, a crippling debt and little in the way of a real, useful and productive economy. A real case of don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover, the poorly chosen title suggests watery fiction or a take on clerical child abuse where in actuality it's essential for both reading and sharing.
This book is a great one-stop-shop for facts and figures around Irish agriculture, industry and finance; around a reputed Irish obsession with home ownership; and around an astonishing giveaway of a treasure in natural resources - fish stocks, gold, zinc, oil, gas and more.
Everything ties in nicely when it comes to making sense of the economic disaster of late 2008 and after. The enormous influence exerted on institutional politics by the banking and developer sectors (termed 'brown envelope' politics in Ireland) saw to it that enormous gambling losses built up in these sectors were covered by mega-billion bailouts well before the IMF arrived to take over the steering of the economy.
'Sins of the Father' is a superb chronicle of the steps which led to the 'perfect storm' now lashing the country; unemployment, emigration, cutbacks to services, a crippling debt and little in the way of a real, useful and productive economy. A real case of don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover, the poorly chosen title suggests watery fiction or a take on clerical child abuse where in actuality it's essential for both reading and sharing.
March 8, 2017
McCabe outlines how from the outset the Irish state has been run as a nation of middlemen, a 'comprador class' running the country, to the detriment of the workers. Going from Housing to Agriculture to Industry and then to Finance McCabe shows how continuous decisions against what would be in the interest of the people have been overlooked in favour of decisions made in the interest of the select few. A great book for an outline of the economic history of an independent Ireland.
January 10, 2015
This book made me want to get out there and do something about the terrible condition the country is in. So I lay down on the sofa and watched a movie until the feeling passed
September 10, 2021
An extremely well researched and references analysis.
My favourite quotes were:
"The key elements of the official narrative of the banking crisis and property collapse – that Irish commercial and residential property prices lost all contact with value and demand and by doing so crippled an economy, and that the Irish State must nationalise those losses while protecting the rights of private property – are not the result of the need for housing in the cities. But this is the way that the banking crisis is explained; that ‘we lost the run of ourselves’ and ‘we all went crazy’ with buying houses."
"The idea that tax breaks in lieu of structural change will save a shrinking economy has a half-life in Ireland that’s greater than plutonium, and just as toxic."
"The exports of multinationals in Ireland are lauded by politicians and bankers not because it is through these exports that Irish people make a living, but because it is by servicing these exporters that banks and commercial property developers make their profits."
"The 2008 banking crisis was not caused by an outbreak of moral failure or individual weakness. The significant power of Irish banks to dictate economic and monetary policy, and to protect themselves against the negative consequences of such policies, had developed over decades. The social and economic forces which fed and sustained that power run deep within Irish society."
My favourite quotes were:
"The key elements of the official narrative of the banking crisis and property collapse – that Irish commercial and residential property prices lost all contact with value and demand and by doing so crippled an economy, and that the Irish State must nationalise those losses while protecting the rights of private property – are not the result of the need for housing in the cities. But this is the way that the banking crisis is explained; that ‘we lost the run of ourselves’ and ‘we all went crazy’ with buying houses."
"The idea that tax breaks in lieu of structural change will save a shrinking economy has a half-life in Ireland that’s greater than plutonium, and just as toxic."
"The exports of multinationals in Ireland are lauded by politicians and bankers not because it is through these exports that Irish people make a living, but because it is by servicing these exporters that banks and commercial property developers make their profits."
"The 2008 banking crisis was not caused by an outbreak of moral failure or individual weakness. The significant power of Irish banks to dictate economic and monetary policy, and to protect themselves against the negative consequences of such policies, had developed over decades. The social and economic forces which fed and sustained that power run deep within Irish society."
January 10, 2025
decent polemic overview of the Irish economy post-independence. draws from the work of Lars Mjoset, who published 'The Irish Economy in a Comparative Institutional Perspective' for the National Economic and Social Council in 1993, which situates the ranchers hypothesis with a longer-term view and grapples to a greater extent with economists who have worked on this stuff in other contexts e.g. Amin Wallerstein Emmanuel etc. it's available online as well as in the Irish library system and it is very much worth seeking out
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March 23, 2022Yeah I understood some of this
March 9, 2023
I want to give this book to everyone with a vested interest in the future prosperity of Ireland! What a history
May 26, 2014
A short but surprisingly details and well referenced overview of the development of the Irish economy since independence, examining the development of policy around construction, agriculture, industry and finance. The book makes a very convincing case that this policy development was consistently made in the interests of the powerful rather than the general population e.g. financial policy was made solely in the interest of the banks, housing policy to benefit builders and developers and industrial policy to the benefit of builders and financiers.
The author traces this policy development to the present day to show that the bank guarantee was not an aberration, but rather a continuation of policies to preserve the interests of bankers and developers.
The details of the events leading to the bank guarantee and the billions wasted on the banks are better covered elsewhere, and the chapter on the bailout has a "tacked on" feel to the rest of the book, but it is useful to read the details again in light of what has been read in the previous chapters.
The author traces this policy development to the present day to show that the bank guarantee was not an aberration, but rather a continuation of policies to preserve the interests of bankers and developers.
The details of the events leading to the bank guarantee and the billions wasted on the banks are better covered elsewhere, and the chapter on the bailout has a "tacked on" feel to the rest of the book, but it is useful to read the details again in light of what has been read in the previous chapters.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews