How Ireland got so rich - by Noah Smith - Noahpinion

I just finished attending Kilkenomics, an annual festival in the small Irish city of Kilkenny. Kilkenomics is a rather unique event, in which Irish comedians interview foreign economists and econ commentators about various topics. My interviews were mostly about war and the changing global order — grim topics that are on a lot of people’s minds these days. I tried to keep things as light as I could under the circumstances, mostly by making fun of the British. All in all, it’s an experience I would highly recommend. But my stay in Kilkenny drove home a fact that I knew on an intellectual level, but had never viscerally experienced: Ireland is an extremely rich country. Kilkenny’s small downtown is as nice as any I’ve visited in Europe, like a little piece of Oslo or Zurich or Amsterdam — a few blocks of little shops and cafes and restaurants and pubs and department stores, with an old castle and some cathedrals thrown in. Outside of downtown, the landscape quickly shifts to an American-

I just finished attending Kilkenomics, an annual festival in the small Irish city of Kilkenny. Kilkenomics is a rather unique event, in which Irish comedians interview foreign economists and econ commentators about various topics. My interviews were mostly about war and the changing global order — grim topics that are on a lot of people’s minds these days. I tried to keep things as light as I could under the circumstances, mostly by making fun of the British. All in all, it’s an experience I would highly recommend. But my stay in Kilkenny drove home a fact that I knew on an intellectual level,