This article narrates Ireland’s recent odyssey from the pride and envy of Europe to kneeling supplicant through the eyes of an econometric model of the government bond market. The exercise suggests that, in essence, two developments triggered and propelled Ireland’s drift towards sovereign...

Over the last ten years the European unification project seemed to rely overwhelmingly on progress in economic terms. The most prominent achievements – the Single Market, the harmonisation of market regulation, the euro – were all driven by an economic rationale. However, attempts to rescue...