What's up with Ireland?

I was too tired and lazy to graph the per capita GDPs (PPP) during the entire "Celtic Tiger" economy of Ireland. However, the following dataset (courtesy of the CIA World Factbook) clearly demonstrates my point. In 2000, Ireland's PPP was 20k, almost 2/3 of the United States. By 2007, Ireland more than doubled its PPP, reaching equivalence with the United States. Meanwhile, the UK and France improved roughly the same rate as the US. What happened? In months to come, I'll go over the details. The answer is not good for us in the United States.