<P> "Celtic Tiger" (Irish: An Tíogar Ceilteach) is a term referring to the economy of the Republic of Ireland from the mid-1990s to the late - 2000s, a period of rapid real economic growth fuelled by foreign direct investment . The boom was dampened by a subsequent property bubble which resulted in a severe economic downturn . </P> <P> At the start of the 1990s, Ireland was a poor country by West European standards, with high poverty, unemployment, inflation, and low growth . The Irish economy expanded at an average rate of 9.4% between 1995 and 2000 following the institution of free education to second level and then third level, which produced a generation of well - educated entrepreneurs, and continued to grow at an average rate of 5.9% during the following decade until 2008, when it fell into recession . Ireland's rapid growth has been described as a rare example of a Western country to match the growth of East Asian nations, i.e. the' Four Asian Tigers' . </P>

When did the celtic tiger start and end