A chara, – May I ask your paper to stop referring to the years of unsustainable high house prices as the “boom”? In the past few days alone this word has appeared several times in your paper. “The habit acquired in the boom years . . .”, Conor Pope (Magazine, December 31st). “Lots of people took Spanish or French during the boom” (CC, Magazine, December 31st). “Boom-era debts take toll on big-name builders”, Barry O’Halloran (Business, December 30th). “The Elliott group . . . was one of the prolific players during the property boom”, Simon Carswell (Business, December 30th). “In 2007, Ireland’s long property boom ended”, Dan O’Brien (Business Review, 2011, December 30th).
The word “boom” infers there was economic soundness which lead to success. In reality, a mass pyramid scheme has burdened thousands of people with unmanageable debts and meant that we have lost economic sovereignty because no-one else will lend us money on the international markets.
Perhaps as a New Year’s resolution your excellent writers could desist from using the word “boom” and henceforth refer to this infamous period by just using the more accurate word “bubble”? – Is mise,