A sense of perspective on where we have come from is essential as challenges loom. Our political leaders must not rush into making bad decisions, writes Noel Whelan
IT HAS been a long time since this country's circumstances have changed so much in the course of one year.
In 2008 we experienced a domestic property market crash and unprecedented international financial turmoil.
We are in the middle of a banking crisis that will take time and a lot of money to resolve and we are now caught up in a currency crisis involving our biggest trading partner.
And yet, as President Mary McAleese and others have sought to remind us in their Christmas messages, there is still so much from which we Irish can draw hope.
As a country we are still enormously better off and better equipped to tackle problems than we ever were.
Of course it would be better if Ireland's boom had come earlier, happened more slowly, and been better managed.
However, we can still be grateful that we experienced it and can believe that we can return to better times.
It is worth remembering that the boom generated much of the political space and the economic dynamic for the resolution of the Northern Ireland conflict.
There are always risks of political stalemate and fanatical violence and there is enduring sectarianism in many parts of Northern Ireland's society but the situation has been transformed. No economic downturn, no matter how bad, compares to a return to the Troubles.
It is also worth remembering that the boom brought Ireland an employment miracle.
Even allowing for the recent rise in unemployment figures, and greater rises to come, we still have about a million more people working in this country than there were 15 years ago.
For decades we exported much of our unemployment problem.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of people who would otherwise have been measured among Ireland's unemployed lived in places like Kilburn or the Bronx.
Not only are they and their children now living in Ireland, so too are thousands of foreign-born workers, mainly eastern European, drawn here by the strength of our employment market.
There has also been a transformation in female workplace participation.
The other great social and economic benefit derived from the recent boom is our education revolution.
Over the last 15 years the number of people attending third-level education in this country has more than doubled, with more than half of those in their mid-20s holding a third-level qualification, one-third of them to degree level.
Our physical infrastructure has also dramatically improved as anyone travelling long distances across or flying from abroad into Ireland over the Christmas period can testify.
Our social infrastructure and public services, while still falling short of rising expectations, have also been transformed for the better during the boom.
The country's industrial base is now more diverse. We have moved from an economy based predominantly on agrarian activity and traditional manufacturing to one based on hi-tech and internationally traded services.
In the last decade we became over-reliant on construction but we are still growing businesses that are emerging as world leaders in new industries.
Even though there have been high-profile closures, we have also witnessed a series of announcements about new, high-quality industries setting up in different parts of the country.
There are, however, a number of respects in which the context within which those charged with solving our economic problems have to operate is more difficult than for generations of previous leaders.
Expectations are now so much greater. This wealthier, more educated, more successful Irish generation is more demanding and, in some ways, unrealistic in its demands.
In the same way that they are impatient for gratification, many are in a rush for solutions.
Another difficulty for current leaders is that the media through which public debate is conducted has changed during the boom. Politics now operates within shorter news cycles and is covered by a more diverse range of media outlets.
The quantity of news coverage has grown exponentially through our boom years, but not the depth.
At a time when our problems are most complex, detailed analysis is more rare.
It is also unfortunate that Ireland's recent success has gifted us the most cynical media generation ever.
"Heads must roll!" is a popular chant these days, and the causes of and solutions to so many problems are personified rather than examined.
Instant answers to every problem are demanded regardless of how new or complex the problems are.
Insufficient space is allowed for the development of more cautious and considered solutions.
The pace of events is extraordinary and there is a real risk that in reacting to mass impatience or media pressure our political leaders will rush into making bad decisions.
In 2009 more than ever there will be a need to resist demands for superficial or short-term decisionmaking.
Indeed, one task will be to find the wisdom to recognise the things we cannot change.