The Celtic Tiger - bust, in hiding, or still booming - gave us many things, from property boom that has excluded the vast majority from house ownership to a quite bewildering array of faintly unpalatable drinks based on the humble coffee bean.
One slightly strange by-product though has been in motor racing. From the days of cobbling together enough money to buy a scrapyard-bound Crossle from a dodgy club racer bound for a vaction at the Government's convenience, Ireland has graduated to being a country unwilling to settle for the parochial.
The diaspora's most obvious route is to Britain, the traditional racing proving ground for Irish drivers. But that too is a thing of the past and drivers seeking to carve their way to the top of their sport are nowadays looking further afield.
Two who have cast the net beyond the ken of most are Dubliner Michael Devaney and Kildare's John O'Hara.
At the start of this year 19-year-old Devaney, who had finished fourth in last season's German Formula BMW championship was considering the next step on the road to his F1 dream. The obvious choice was European F3, the series that has become something of a feeder championship to F1. But such prestige comes at a hefty price and by the middle of February Devaney found himself on the wrong end of the search for sponsorship to pay for a drive with the Toyota-powered TOMS team.
As the deal crumbled just weeks before the start of the racing Devaney was faced with the prospect of a year out of motorsport. Then came the call which changed everything.
"We had waited so long for the Euro deal to come together that when it fell apart we were right up against the start of the season," he says. "At that stage there was the possibility of having nothing at all. To get the call was amazing, totally out of the blue."
The call was from Belgium's JB Motorsport, a top team in German Formula 3.
They had heard Devaney's Euro F3 deal hadn't materialised, would he fancy racing with them, there was a seat available.
"It was pretty daunting," he recalls. "I only had a couple of days to get used to the team and only a couple of days' testing before the first race. It all happened so quickly, but it has worked out brilliantly." So well that in his first race with the team, Devaney scored two fifth places. Since then good has just got better. At the next round at the Oschersleben circuit Devaney claimed pole in round three, held his lead from the start and powered to the flag to become the youngest ever Irish driver to claim an F3 win. The following day's race saw him finish fourth to close in on first place in the series.
If that was a boost, the next double header at Assen in Holland, was a revelation. In dire weather conditions, Devaney showed his smarts during a safety car period, hanging back until the restart while others ahead, still on dry tyres in the rain, got involved in more chaos. Devaney chose his moment and powered from seventh to the lead to take another victory and the championship lead.
And now Devaney is preparing to renew his assault on the championship after a five-week break. This weekend he heads to the Lausitzring near Berlin, in charge of the championship and keen to copper-fasten his dominance.
"It's been a rollercoaster few months," he admits. "From not having a drive to signing to having no testing, to winning races and leading the championship. It's been a blur. But now I've had a little time off, the team has had time off and we're all itching to get back to it.
"I can't wait to be back in the car. I just want to show what I can do, help the team show what they can do and hopefully pick up where I left off at the last race."
It's a similar story that John O'Hara relates. After winning the 2003 Formula Ireland championship, the Kildare man was searching for the next step, but once again, budgetary constraints precluded a berth in mega-expensive British series. His search for the next step took him father than most - to the Asian F3 series.
"It does seem a little odd," O'Hara admits. "But I looked at a lot of Irish lads who went to race in Europe and there are no prizes for winning a lot of championships in Europe. A lot of them might have won but at the end of the year they're still left with a massive mountain to climb for the following year.
"I just wanted to try something different. And my sponsors, Aviation Display, Access Lift Trucks and Aertec, were great, they were really supportive and up for the challenge.
"The prize in Asian F3 is great," he adds. "After the next round, the leader of the championship will get a drive at the Macao F3 race at the end of the year, with the TOMS Toyota team and that's a huge event, very closely watched by people in F1. And for the winner of the championship the prize is a 50 per cent subsidised drive in the Japanese F3 series which is a really big championship."
So far O'Hara's choice has been a good one. He is second in the championship behind Christian Jones, son of form F1 world champion Alan Jones. O'Hara, still getting used to the cars, has been consistently the quickest man on circuit and says he has been hampered only by travelling to his Kinetic team's base in Phillipines and familiarising himself with F3.
"It hasn't been a massive culture shock," he says. "The Phillipines, where the first four races have been, is pretty westernised, everyone speaks English, but I normally go over a week before the race and getting over the jetlag and getting testing in is difficult. The next round is in Beijing in China in August, so I reckon there might be a bit more culture shock there, but I'm looking forward to it.
"So far it's been great. I'm enjoying the racing. I think I'm doing well, and I reckon there's a lot more room for improvement and I'm pretty well placed at the moment, so hopefully racing China, even before F1, will be great."
The two drivers' progress can be followed at: www.asianf3.net and www.michaeldevaney.com