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Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Tiger's gone: Inventor of Celtic Tiger resigns

Banker who coined the phrase for Irish economic ‘miracle’ has worked for several powerhouse financial institutions.

THE MAN CREDITED with inventing the ‘Celtic Tiger’ phrase in 1994 has resigned from his position with Barclays Bank in the UK.

Kevin Gardiner was until recently working as chief investment officer for the European markets at the UK banking giant.

He is credited with inventing the term in a report for Morgan Stanley twenty years ago to describe the unprecedented growth the Irish economy was seeing at the time.

The name stuck, and became indelibly associated with the bouyant economic period that was sustained through the 90s and much of the 2000s.

Despite what is now acknowledged as a slowdown well in advance of the economic collapse of 2008, the Tiger tag was still applied to the Irish economy before it went south six years ago.

After leaving Morgan Stanley, Gardiner worked with HSBC as Global Head of Equity Strategy, as well as several other investment banks and at the Bank of England.

Column: The fall of the Celtic Tiger – what next?>
Boomtime: 9 Celtic Tiger ads you won’t see these days…>

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18 Comments
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    Mute Mike Clinton
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    Oct 4th 2015, 7:33 PM

    I don’t think it will catch on ;)

    132
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    Mute Joan Featherstone
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    Oct 4th 2015, 7:55 PM

    Frequently swear I’ll dump my FB profile, TBH I think it’s nearing its sell by date.

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    Mute thejynxeffect
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    Oct 4th 2015, 8:01 PM

    Delete your Facebook accounts

    61
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    Mute Pronnsias McCarthaigh
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    Oct 4th 2015, 8:26 PM

    “Chalk it down” as they would say down under.

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    Mute Jake Race
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    Oct 5th 2015, 9:13 AM

    ““Chalk it down” as they would say down under.”

    Do we? Never heard that one.

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    Mute kenobi :)
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    Oct 4th 2015, 7:14 PM

    What goes up will come down.

    58
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    Mute BevinArmageddon
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    Oct 5th 2015, 1:32 AM

    Yeah, kinda like the Internet. Remember that monumental failure?

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    Mute Babadook
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    Oct 4th 2015, 7:30 PM

    I’ll knock anyone for doing well for themselves but I just find him a little smug. Mr. Mc Smug Smug.

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    Mute Pronnsias McCarthaigh
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    Oct 4th 2015, 7:37 PM

    These days, Facebook is worth $265.3 billion, with over 1.5 billion people using the site every month.

    Reduce> 2+6+5+3+1+5 = 22 and In Numerology the Number “22″ represents the Master Builder.

    Facebook raised $13.7 million > 11

    There was a lot more than just Mark Zuckerberg behind Facebook from the very beginning.

    Facebook was set up by the US Administration with this in mind.

    http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/dd395-NSA-site.jpg

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    Mute John Cummins
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    Oct 4th 2015, 8:24 PM

    What are you on about? it doesn’t take a genius to work out that 13,700,000 is greater that 11!

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Oct 5th 2015, 12:57 PM

    Frank is our resident nut job John, Take no notice. Facebook is not worth 256.3 bn at all. But even oif you found the right number Frank would make the maths work for him.

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    Mute Fiachra Ahern Esq
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    Oct 4th 2015, 7:54 PM

    Someone had a busy day on google images. Maybe an article with a critique would have been more interesting and better journalism.

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    Mute The Dublin Cynic
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    Oct 5th 2015, 1:47 AM

    Facebook ain’t going anywhere for a very long time. It has too much info on you and I, it knows everything about you and more, the US government will make sure it stays around for a long time. The people who have accounts but say they never use it, Fb already have what they need on you and have profiled you easily. The ones who say they will/have deleted their accounts, again fb doesn’t care, there are plenty more people signing up everyday who will be more engaging to replace you. It’s pretty much like a race, as in human race.

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    Mute Scorpionvenomm
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    Oct 4th 2015, 9:49 PM

    Thief

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