Allegedly coined by the Irish economist David McWilliams (but the first recorded use of the phrase is by Kevin Gardiner), as a description of the Irish economy of the late nineties and early millennium years, nothing could be more apt... except for the space shuttle Challenger. A term stolen from the Asian tiger Economies of the early nineties, it describes how, propelled by government incompetence and corruption, and a shedload of Euro from nowhere, the Irish Economy got off the launchpad through cheers all around.
For ten years it soared as if nothing was wrong, surviving the (dot)bust and 9/11. And then, suddenly, like Challenger, when everything looked like it was okay, the whole lot blew up. The tiger is dead, killed by the great recession of 2008 and The New '10s. Though the Irish economy has recovered from the worst of the 2008 fallout it has still not reached the feel-good and optimistic glory seen in the 90s. Attempts were made to call the resurgence "The Celtic Phoenix" but it never caught on.