''The ghost houses of Ireland: Foreclosure and eviction''

From The Star

''The roots of Ireland’s rags-to-riches-and-back-again story began more than 20 years ago.

During the early 1990s, with a young, English-speaking, low-cost workforce, low interest rates and government grants, Ireland’s export-oriented economy blossomed, growing by an average 6.5 per cent from 1990 to 2007.

By 2000, unemployment had plunged to 3.8 per cent, the lowest in Europe, from 16 per cent in the mid-1990s. Irish expats and new immigrants alike flocked to the country. In 2005, 100,000 immigrants arrived in Ireland, more than triple the 30,000 who came annually in the mid-1990s.''

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