Lean times for the Irish Republic

By Mark Simpson BBC News, Dublin

Taoiseach Brian Cowen is a former finance minister like Gordon Brown

Ireland may have lost its Celtic Tiger economy but it has not lost its sense of humour.

The fear that the economy in Ireland could crash as spectacularly as it did in Iceland has given rise to a credit crunch joke.

What is the difference between Ireland and Iceland? One letter and six months.

Like most humour, the joke combines a grain of truth with a handful of exaggeration.

Prof Brian Lucey, an economist at Trinity College Dublin, says: "We're not as bad as Iceland because we're saved by the still pretty low interest rates of the euro.

"We got here through what was pretty much a perfect storm. First of all, there's a world economic crisis going on which we are affected by. In addition to that, we had our own artificially generated, credit-based boom which ultimately has led to an enormous and very deep property crash."

Shared crisis

How times change. The Irish economy used to be the envy of Europe but the Celtic Tiger has lost its roar and workers are losing their jobs.

An unemployment rate of more than 10% is predicted by some economists, and it could rise even further.

High-flying Dublin businesswoman Joan Mulvihill has already been made redundant from her job in corporate finance. Her career went suddenly from boom to bust.

She says: "One of the things you lose is your own sense of identity. I was Joan Mulvihill, senior manager. Saying my name and not having an anchor to attach it to, I realised how dependent we had become on our job titles and our business cards