The Pope’s Children at 20: How Ireland Grew Up

The David McWilliams Podcast

David McWilliams

News & Politics

4.5 • 692 Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Twenty years ago, The Pope’s Children changed how Ireland saw itself; a country high on credit, confidence, and Celtic Tiger ambition. Two decades later, we’re back where it all began: the suburbs, the shopping centres, the bouncy castles and breakfast rolls that built a new middle class. We revisit the characters who defined an era, Decklanders, RoboPaddy, Breakfast Roll Man, and the forces that reshaped Irish life: class, credit, and cultural reinvention. From boom to bust to boom again, we ask what really changed, and what just got a rebrand.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	To understand the economy, you have to understand human nature.
0:07.2	This podcast is powered by ACAST.
0:13.3	How are you doing there? It is podcast time. And today we have a special anniversary podcast.
0:18.8	I wish I had one of those blowers. I wish you had one of those blowers.
0:21.4	I wish you had one of those blowers too, John.
0:23.3	I always lie in bed at night.
0:25.7	Anyway, anyway, how you doing?
0:28.6	I hope all is well in your world.
0:30.2	The reason we have this anniversary gig today
0:32.1	in our little party is because today
0:34.5	is the 20th anniversary to the day
0:37.1	of the publication of the Pope's children.
0:40.1	Yes. I mean, that is 20 years. 20 years. I can't believe that. I remember. I remember that
0:46.5	you publishing that and go, oh, look, that's my friend. He's published a book. Exactly. A book of
0:51.5	complete nonsense. But, no, the reason it was, it was, it was, it obviously sold extremely well. It changed, I think, a lot of ways of looking at the country. We did a documentary afterwards on RTE. It went very well. And it's just, it's interesting. Just think it's 20 years ago. What was that book about? Why did it capture the imagination?
1:13.6	What was the process?
1:15.3	But also, why was it so well written, you know?
1:17.8	Well, I was so well written because we just cut and paste.
1:20.4	It was this even before chat GPT, John.
1:22.2	This is when you had to do real research, okay?
1:25.5	You had to do absolutely real research.
1:27.8	But actually, Mac, you know, you talk about a bestseller.
	...

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