Consumption and the Irish Recession: Tiger Tales of Consumer Abundance and Recession

In 2007 the global financial crisis led to a collapse of the Irish economy and ended the Celtic Tiger years (1995-2007). The recession took most people by surprise, and affected Irish consumers across all social strata and socio-economic backgrounds. While the economy had grown on average 5.8% annually (2000-2007), real GDP shrunk by 4.8% annually from 2008-2011 (ESRI, 2012). While the effects of the recession are well documented on the macro-level, little is understood about the impact these have had on consumers’ identity and consumption practices. This study addresses this gap. Much has been written on impoverished consumers and various strategies they have utilised to cope with this (Lewis 1959; Hill and Stamey 1990; Hill and Stephens 1997; Lee, Ozanne and Hill 1999, Hill 2002; Baker, Gentry and Rittenberg 2005; Hamilton 2009). This study builds on this by focusing on consumers who have gone from living prosperous lives to their standard of living being negatively affected by the collapse of the Irish economy.