Here's a talk I gave to the CFAs in Ireland on June 12, 2009. The point of the talk is to advance a financial fragility hypothesis to explain many of the determinants of the 2009/2010 Irish recessionary period. This talk gives the context in terms of governance for the poor performance of the Irish economy to date, suggests one theory to explain the changes we have witnessed in Irish economic conditions in 2008 and 2009, and advances an “emergent” theory of corporate governance for the 21st century to better protect the Irish economy from the inevitable excesses of the financial sector.