Born in 2005

The smoking ban in enclosed workplaces — introduced in 2004 — had transformed pub culture. People stood outside in the rain and the craic continued, but the smoke-filled pub of centuries was gone. Ireland was now a country with a Polish grocery on every high street, with Nigerian nurses in every hospital, with Chinese restaurants and Brazilian barbers.

The Church's influence was waning — Mass attendance had halved since 1990. A new Ireland was emerging, multicultural and secular in ways that would have been unimaginable in 1950.