Book Review: As competing vested interests struggle to retain spoils won during the boom against the backdrop of a failed political system, economist Dan O'Brien's recently published book  -- Ireland, Europe and the World - - provides some reasons for optimism on the Irish economy despite current adversities. At a time when reform of inherited British structures is so overdue and the culture of Victorian secrecy so engrained in the Irish system, he strikingly debunks some cherished myths including the belief in the Irish Mind as presented in international marketing in recent years by the inward investment agency IDA Ireland, as outward looking and open: "Adapting and improving. Generating new knowledge and new ideas. Working together to find new ways of getting things done. Better and faster."

Dan O'Brien is a senior editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London and lives in Geneva. He has lived in six European countries since leaving Ireland in 1991. An outsider with an inside knowledge, is a good vantage point when it comes to Ireland.

In the small Irish society, the default reaction is often to avoid creating offence. Why put potential business in danger; the prospect of an appointment to a public body or a commission as an expert or consultant -  - a lucrative activity in Ireland where long-fingering issues is so common?

New material makes up one-third of the book with three chapters devoted to Ireland; two to Europe and three to global issues. The old material is a selection of published articles dating back a decade. Whether it's an analysis of the Danish voting system as a template for Ireland or a judgment on Charlie McCreevy, published on the Finance Minister's last day in office in September 2004, many stand the test of time.

In 2004, Ireland's financial services economists nominated Charlie McCreevy as the best ever Irish Finance Minister.

Dan O'Brien wrote at the time: "During seven long years and an unparalleled boom, he had the opportunity to do much. Apart from his pensions fund, he did little."

He concluded: "But for all his failings in office, Charlie McCreevy is a decent man and is certainly not the odiously uncaring mean spirit some of his critics claim. He is principled. too"

O'Brien brings this Shakespearean trait also to his view of Irish politicians  in general - - a trait this reviewer is struggling to master!

He says that while Irish politics has changed little in recent decades, where change has occurred, it has usually been for the worst. However, Irish politicians are generally relatively unvenal; lacking in pomposity and in contrast with the rest of Europe, resisted pandering to anti-immigration sentiment during the boom.

O'Brien writes that the calibre of the average Irish politician is below that of counterparts in similar countries and Ireland is now paying a high price for parochial politics - -  a cost that's getting higher as the world changes.

He cites a few examples of the inertia that has long dominated the Irish system: slow-motion responses to chronic recessions; protracted failure to deal with clerical child abuse; the lamentable efforts to develop an effective Irish language policy and sees three reasons that imperil the country's future: the constitutional framework; social partnership and a society that shows little interest, and is often resistant to new ideas and new ways of doing things.

Despite the crash that has brought avoidable misery to tens of thousands of their people, it's clear that the political class, which is the product of an unsatisfactory electoral system and the vested interest groups that have been nurtured by the social partnership process, are still unwilling to embrace change.

The proposal by the Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, in the past week that the Seanad, the Upper House of the Irish Parliament, be abolished, evoked comparisons with Nazi Germany in the 1930s and while self-interest is shielded beyond the demands for reform as an alternative, it is remarkable that no defender of the status quo has come forward with credible proposals.

Cue to years of more talk and no action.

Dan O'Brien writes that if a demand for change and how to affect change, do not bubble up from society, and if the structures of leadership do not drive needed change from the top, chronic inertia is the result.

O'Brien says many countries have images of themselves that are entirely at odds with reality.

Ireland is for example a much more meritocratic society in business and politics than for example countries, such as the United States where the myth of the self-made man is deeply engrained. In 1948, the renowned historian Richard Hofstadter, had questioned what he termed the "myth" that the iconic presidential hero Abraham Lincoln, was a self-made man. It still of course endures.

In contrast with IDA Ireland's purple marketing prose on the Irish Mind, O'Brien says that despite the enormous changes in recent decades, it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Irish mindset is introverted and hostile to new ideas.

He cites pan-European Eurostat and Eurobarometer surveys including a 2008 survey, which showed that only 17% of Irish households used the web to access newspapers and magazines - - just above Bulgaria and Romania.

The number of published books per one million population also compared unfavourably with other countries.

Dan O'Brien writes that in these grim times, there is a danger that pessimism can turn to defeatism.

He cites: the flexible educated workforce; the business environment and a successful internationally traded services sector but also highlights the failures of indigenous industry.

The hostility to new ideas and the inward looking mindset, is reflected in low levels of innovation coupled with a lack of export success.

This is dealing with reality rather than the spin from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and its agencies, which is generally presented in the media without question.

However, with many insiders in denial about the change in fortunes and challenges ahead, it's urgent that Ireland looks in the mirror and does not just see the positives.

In this season of books focusing on claimed greedy bankers, developers and so on, Dan O'Brien's book isn't another chronicle searching for villains from well-chewed over news, but a coherent analysis of how hope for a small country can be rekindled in a Europe and wider world, where the day of the permanent free lunch is as far away as ever.