This article offers an overview of recent international scholarship on neo-liberalism in particular the work of the geographer and historian David Harvey and the recent books of the educationalist Henry Giroux. It begins with a brief historical account of neo-liberalism and outlines the main characteristics of the free market era. Irish society and education is analysed in light of this work arguing that this offers a useful model for understanding the rise in inequality, the changing nature of democracy and the shift in social values that we have witnessed in Ireland over the past decade. The article finishes with a brief exploration of the impact of free market ideas on contemporary adult education and the relevance this has for the ongoing debate over different versions of lifelong learning