I recommend you get them to listen to this [MP3, 27 MB,60 minutes]
podcast.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/355.mp3 (link will die in the next few days, PM me if you want to get it after that)
US market specific, but it lays it out, bit by bit, in layman’s terms.
First post etc. etc.
Excellent podcast
That’s just brilliant. Good old NPR.
It really helped me understand what’s been going on over the last few years, both in the U.S and globally, in a way that individual news stories and editorials can ever do.
Now, where can I find a similar source that gives the “Ireland is different” perspective on all this in a compact and all-encompassing format? 
NPR rocks, it was the only radio I worth listening to in the US, everything else is ad riddled tosh.
Not unlike, er, everything in Ireland - half of which you have to pay for whether you like it or not.
I was only thinking in US terms. Ireland is much the same.