Game of Thrones may earn Ireland a king's ransom

New Zealand did very well out of the Lord of the Rings movies, and Ireland looks set to make similar hay from its association with HBO’s hugely successful saga Game of Thrones

Fans of either the HBO television series Game of Thrones, or the George RR Martin books on which it is based, have learned by now that emotional investment in any of the saga’s key players rarely produces a return.

Martin delights in wrong-footing his readers by dispensing with (seemingly) indispensable characters at critical plot junctures. At the risk of sounding the spoiler alert, those who have watched the finale of season five since ...