I think it will come out of it in time - and I mean a lot of time, measurable in years, maybe even a decade - but it will surely never go back to the crazy bling years, nor should it. It's a good question as to what "business as usual" even is.

When I moved here in 1991 it was in the midst of a depression, with dole queues around the block. (I hadn't realised how dire the situation was, and only a government-funded FÁS job and later my specialised skills as a harp teacher saved me.) Then the economy started to pick up, largely because of easy credit, and things got silly - you could see it happening all around you. People here weren't used to having plenty of "money" and it just went wild (prices did too).

Now the inevitable collapse has come, as it was always going to, and I can't see us ever going back to the Celtic [Paper] Tiger years because that situation is unsustainable by its very nature. Some kind of "normality" will eventually emerge as things level out, but it's hard to tell exactly what form that will take because we have come through so many contrasts in such a short time. Meanwhile, we're left with huge fallout - not only economic austerity but emigration of youth/talent/brains and truly heartbreaking landscape pollution.

I could not agree more heartily with your last three sentences.