How Ireland wrote the modern story of progress

The article is basically correct: everyone's got a better life than their grandparents.

However, a few notes:

• He over-relies on Fintan O'Toole, who is a centrist tool. You can't read one book about a country (any country) and repeat it as gospel, that's poor journalism.
• Things appear better on paper than they are. Even using modified GNI gives a bloated number compared to how wealthy real/normal people are. By AIC [actual individual consumption] we are comparable to Estonia or Portugal.
• We are completely completely incapable of building infrastructure. Our political system can't act decisively and go build a railroad or a Children's Hospital.

And a positive he missed: we are arguably the best welfare state in the world, measured by taxing the rich and redistributing to the poor.