Joseph Lee's Ireland 1912-1985 seems to confirm the intuition of the writers in presenting an Ireland in which an alarming political and economic retardation was linked to begrudgery, a deadly alloy of envy, jealousy and spite.

High on a throne of royal state , which far Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind

... as they will not have sufficient distribution of risk to permit the law of averages to play its part and a severe total loss may ...

Who knows? Maybe someday he'll finish writing his book and make lots of money selling it.