# The Pope’s Children at 20: How Ireland Grew Up

An episode of [The David McWilliams Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1462649946), 6 Nov 2025, 38 min.

Audio: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast/e/690b4fbab27ff20ceb11953a/media.mp3

Twenty years ago, The Pope’s Children changed how Ireland saw itself; a country high on credit, confidence, and Celtic Tiger ambition. Two decades later, we’re back where it all began: the suburbs, the shopping centres, the bouncy castles and breakfast rolls that built a new middle class. We revisit the characters who defined an era, Decklanders, RoboPaddy, Breakfast Roll Man, and the forces that reshaped Irish life: class, credit, and cultural reinvention. From boom to bust to boom again, we ask what really changed, and what just got a rebrand. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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