Going from Green to Red

Ireland pounced on the global economic boom of the 1990s, luring billions of dollars with low taxes, cheap labor and an English-speaking workforce. The boom's collapse also hit close to home — perhaps most dramatically in the case of the troubled Irish drug company Elan, which has seen share prices plunge 90%, is the subject of an accounting investigation and is struggling to raise $1 billion from asset sales to stay afloat. But as Elan's chairman and CEO Donal Geaney stepped down last week, along with deputy chairman Tom Lynch, their gloom had not really spread to the rest of Ireland's...