In the past fifteen years, Ireland has gone from being one of the poorest countries in the EU to one of the richest in the world.

Of all the factors in this extraordinary transformation, none has been more prominent than the astonishing boom in construction. In The Builders, Frank McDonald and Kathy Sheridan tell the stories of these men and of the changes - physical and psychological - they have brought about. The story of Ireland's property developers has been the great untold story of the boom - until now.

Essential reading Sunday Business Post