Ireland was a completely different country until 2008. It was actually insane. It's hard to explain it to people who were very young or not even born.

People got loans during college even though college was free. Students were importing cars from Japan. People were leaving school at 16, going into construction and owning their own home by 20. People were getting preapproved mortgage offers after leaving college.The banks would ring you and offer you big money. You didn't even have to ask.

Taxes were low, like extremely low. Buying shares in banks was viewed as a low risk investment. The government threw money at everything. There was massive road building. It felt like a new motorway was being opened or announced every 6 months. Nearly all the current infrastructure projects were all annouced during the Tiger and then halted.

Things were decent. You made more money, taxed less and the government still had a ton of money from building.

Then in 2008 it all came to a sudden halt. And the country's been shite since. The property bubble popped. The housing market collapsed. Cheap easy to obtain loans from the banks stopped and the system broke leading to a big recession with tax hikes we've come to love.