Was It For This?: Why Ireland Lost the Plot

Ireland today stands at a defining moment. The prosperity of the Celtic Tiger years has given way to the sudden crash, the turbulence of the euro crisis, and the loss of our sovereignty to the faceless technocrats of Europe and the IMF. Ireland's leaders seem impotent and rage, bewilderment, and despair have swept through Irish society.

Was It For Thi s? sweeps through the pages of Ireland's recent history to get to the heart of its political, social, and existential identity crisis. Ranging across a vast canvas, Was It For This? argues that the Celtic Tiger was built on a collective delusion, and that the seeds of its destruction were sown many years before it even began. Along the way, Waters ponders Ireland's love/hate relationship with Fianna Fáil; the undercurrents that ran through the 2011 presidential election; why their political leaders and commentators have clung onto the remnants of 1960s revolutionary fervor long after the revolution was won; how their denial of an authoritative father figure has led to a leaderless ''sibling society''; the emptiness of their ''youth culture'' and the suppression of real thought and discussion through cynicism and irony; and why Ireland has lost the very language that once enabled them to speak of ''Ireland'' with pride.