Ireland’s economic boom from 1994 to 2000 (widely labeled the ‘Celtic Tiger’) has been seen by analysts as indicating the country’s success in benefiting from the opportunities offered by globalisation. While an initial reading emphasised that economic transformation had been achieved through market liberalisation, this was soon contested by a literature that focused more on the crucial role played by the state. Scholars at the influential Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) argued that ‘there was a great deal more to Ireland’s success than liberalization of markets. The state has been deeply implicated in the entire process, managing both economic development and the welfare state’. They conclude that ‘it is not a simple story of globalization, forced withdrawal of the state and the promotion of neo-liberalism’. Examining in more detail the role played by the Irish state, Ó Riain characterised it as a ‘flexible developmental state’ in contrast to the bureaucratic developmental states of East Asia, arguing that this constitutes a new model of state-led development that is more responsive to the demands and pressures of globalisation.