Book Review: As competing vested interests struggle to retain spoils won during the boom against the backdrop of a failed political system, economist Dan O'Brien's recently published book  -- Ireland, Europe and the World - - provides some reasons for optimism on the Irish economy despite current adversities. At a time when reform of inherited British structures is so overdue and the culture of Victorian secrecy so engrained in the Irish system, he strikingly debunks some cherished myths including the belief in the Irish Mind as presented in international marketing in recent years by the inward investment agency IDA Ireland, as outward looking and open: "Adapting and improving. Generating new knowledge and new ideas. Working together to find new ways of getting things done. Better and faster."