David McWilliams' brilliant survey of Ireland today is a celebration of success. He takes us to Deckland, that suburban state of mind where you'll find the Kells Angels, those out-of-town commuters who are the cutting edge of the new prosperity. He introduces the HiCos - Hiberno-Cosmopolitans - the elite whose distance from Deckland is measured in their cool sophistication, their ability to feel at home equally on the Boulevard Saint-Michel and on Hill 16.

The Pope's Children is an antidote to the endless pessimism of the Commentariat , official Ireland's gloomy opinion mongers, forever seeing a glass half empty that is in fact three-quarters full. There is a vast surge of ambition, new money, optimism and hope out there. That's the real story: The Pope's Children tells it - and tells it with style.