After ten years of a boom and on the eve of a downturn, Irish society has been turned on its head by a Generation War. The clear winners have been the middle-aged Jagger Generation, enormously enriched by the property boom, while the younger generation - the cash-stripped Jugglers - will be badly exposed as the credit wave recedes.

Then there are the Bono Boomers, wedged between the winners and losers, who are not about to grow up just because the economy is doing badly, preferring instead to enjoy life as permalescents - a permanently adolescent generation, too young to be old, too old to be hip.

As the Jaggers, Jugglers and Bono Boomers struggle to maintain their slice of a diminished pie, David McWilliams explains how it's time to take stock, learn from history and harness the collective power of past generations. He argues that if Ireland can exploit its unique ecomonic resource - it's global tribe - Ireland as a nation will be reinvigorated. He believes that now is the time to play the Generation Game.

David McWilliams is the author of the bestselling The Pope's Children: Ireland's New Elite and lives in Dublin with his wife and two children. www.davidmcwilliams.ie