Acceso usuarios
Irlanda
In the wake of the global financial crisis, and as Europe’s financial and fiscal woescontinue, Ireland’s beleaguered economy has attracted a great deal of scrutiny, withmuch made of the country’s status as one of the PIIGS and the fact that it was bailed outby the troika of the IMF, EU and ECB in November 2010. Whilst most attention has beendirected at Ireland’s banks and the strategy of the Irish government in managing thecrisis, substantial interest (both nationally and internationally) has been focused on theproperty sector and in particular the phenomenon of so-called ‘ghost estates’ (or, inofficial terms, unfinished estates). As of October 2011 there were 2,846 such estates inIreland, and they have come to visibly symbolize the collapse of Ireland’s ‘Celtic Tiger’economy. In this essay, we examine the unfinished estates phenomenon, placing themwithin the context of Ireland’s property boom during the Celtic Tiger years, andconceptualize them as ‘new ruins’ created through the search for a spatial fix byspeculative capitalism in a time of neoliberalism. We detail the characteristics andgeography of such estates, the various problems afflicting the estates and their residents,and the Irish government’s response to those problems. In the final section we examinethe estates as exemplars of new ruins, the remainder and reminder of Celtic Tiger excess
