The "pot of gold" goes poof

Shown above, an artist's rendering of the proposed U2 Tower in Dublin which would be Ireland's tallest building, complete with luxury apartments and a recording studio for Bono and the U2 boys.

But the project is now on hold and may even be dead -- a victim of the worldwide credit crunch and a nose-diving Irish economy.

When the European Union's poorer members warned the richest countries last weekend of a "new Iron Curtain" coming down on the continent, they were talking not only about the need to bail out the countries of the former East Bloc. They also meant countries like Ireland, which, after two decades of growth that made it Europe's fastest-growing economy, is now one of its biggest busts.