On the Town: The Pope's Children by economist and broadcaster David McWilliams makes economics "sexy and thrilling", said comedian Ardal O'Hanlon.
"It is hilarious and packed with humour, and it also works for me as a rollicking satire . . . It's a very refreshing and positive antidote to the doom and gloom. It is a very refreshing take on contemporary Ireland."
He said his biggest dread on being asked to launch the book was that he wouldn't be able to understand it. He's usually all right as long as it's not "poetry or economics", he joked to guffaws of laughter on Tuesday night in Dublin's Globe on George's Street. McWilliams "has a great sense of the absurd", added the comedian, who was in school with McWilliams in Blackrock College. "The book is absolutely epic in its ambition and scope. And it's very dashing in its execution," he said.
Fergal Tobin, publishing director of Gill & Macmillan, explained that The Pope's Children "provides a dissection of the new Irish middle class" and that it "tries to make sense of them, what makes them tick . . . He's saying we have embraced a kind of American capitalism with enthusiasm and that we are comfortable in our skins. We are not gloomy. We like our new wealth," said Tobin.
McWilliams's book is about people born on either side of the pope's visit in 1979. "They have never owed anything, have nice disposable incomes, have never known the poor-mouth stuff, and are going to take over the leadership of this country in the next 10 years," added Tobin.
Among those at the launch were some of McWilliams's college friends including psychiatrist Paul Scully, barrister Paul Greene, copywriter Richard Callanan and Chris McCann.
The Pope's Children: Ireland's New Elite by David McWilliams is published by Gill & Macmillan