A Comparison between the Ship of Fools by Sebastian Brant and the Ship of Fools by Fintan O'Toole

O'Tooole is an Irish journalist and writer who in his book the Ship of Fools talks about the Celtic Tiger in Ireland. The Celtic Tiger in Ireland was a period of rapid economic growth from the mid 1990's to the late 2000's. Fintan O'Toole talks about how Ireland was dragged down by corruption, greed, delusion and ignorance.

• these are all qualities that 'the fools' from the Sebastian Brant book possessed. There is a link between the original book and the fools like the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) in Ireland.

O'Toole's book explains how the property market during the Celtic Tiger consumed Ireland and why there was such a tumultuous demise as a result of this.

He equally talks about the developers, bankers and politicians in Ireland and the ways in which they landed Ireland in such a mess.

• these developers, bankers and politicians are like the fools in Sebastian Brant's 'Ship of Fools'.

O'Toole discusses the short term thinking, clientelism and folly that led to such a collapse and recession.

• the foolish behaviour in the original book led to 'the fools' being shipped off to their damnation

O'Toole talks about how these people in power had the resources to build a sustainable Ireland but failed to do so and as a result let down the Irish people.

In conclusion, whilst O'Toole's 'Ship of Fools' is vastly different to Sebastian Brant's 'Ship of Fools', he does use the fundamentals of Brant's message to portray the foolish behaviour of the Irish developers, bankers and politicians. There are undeniable inextricable links between the books but their messages and themes are very different.