On Maitre D's, Trojan Horses and Aftershocks: Neoliberalism Redux in Ireland after the Crash

Abstract

Critical scholarship has revealed the darker side of the model of economic recovery, which Ireland has embraced from 2008 and has placed under scrutiny the claim that the country is witnessing a ‘Celtic comeback’ because of this model. But as crisis recedes and the contours of a new normal become manifest, perhaps it is surprising that less attention is being given to the politics of Ireland’s post-crash politico-institutional architecture and growth agenda. In this brief provocation, we mobilise Peck, Theodore and Brenner’s (2013) theorisation of ‘neoliberalism redux’ to explore the structuration of regulatory institutions and experiments in Ireland after the crash. We argue that whilst Ireland will continue to be cast as a small open, liberalised, entrepreneurial and glocalised economy, its post-crash development manifesto needs to be construed as less a straightforward reset or return to a pre-crash model after a shock or blip and more a historically novel and contested reimagining and reinvention. It could have been – and may yet be – different. We invoke the themes of ‘maître d’s’, ‘Trojan horses’ and ‘aftershocks’ to open a debate on the forces which will combine to determine the fate of neoliberalism redux in Ireland.