Cape Verde.

Remember the name, for it represents the great Irish pioneering spirit in the early 21st century.

It all started a few months ago with advertisements booming out from the radio.

The ads heralded the "newly discovered Cape Verde islands". The archipelago nestles off the coast of west Africa, about 800 miles south of the Canaries. And now, their existence was being revealed to the great unwashed for the first time.

Somebody had "discovered" these islands.

There was a time when these kinds of places remained hidden from the civilised world until an Irishman showed up with a collar and a crucifix, intent on exporting the national obsession. Prior to that, the locals went about their business happy and free, oblivious to the fact that they hadn't been "discovered".

Today, Paddy is still going forth with the national obsession, discovering strange places around the globe. These days, however, he wades ashore waving not the Word, but a property brochure. Instead of saving souls, he is intent on a savings plan that will offer yearon-year double-digit growth, going forward. Ask not what you can do for Cape Verde, but what the Cape can do for you.

The Cape is now to be home for a new 700-unit development, run by Irish outfit based in Cork, Cape Verde Developments. If things go according to plan, most of the units on this sunny west-African island will be flogged from the plans on this rainy west European island, and a little piece of Cape Verde will forever be the oul sod.

And who is going to lead the Irish on this latest conquest? Emerging from the Atlantic Ocean onto the shores of the Cape is not just any old Paddy, but probably the greatest Irishman since Brian Boru. He comes ashore, the sea dripping from his well-cut suit, peering through fogged-up spectacles. A smile ghosts across his lips as he announces his arrival in undulating tones. "I'm Eddie Hobbs, this is Cape Verde and I'm handing it over to you".

For it is none other than the consumer's champion, the scourge of Official Ireland, the people's choice, who is at the frontline in attempting to tame the Cape. He will bring harmony where there is none, order where there is chaos, bricks and mortar where nature is running amok. And for the folks back home, he may offer a chance to restructure your portfolio, to spread your exposure into places which have only been recently discovered.

Eddie is a 'consultant' for Cape Verde Developments.

He plugs the company on his website, where thousands of consumers go to find out how their champion views the world. In this, Eddie is evoking the national spirit for entrepreneurship, multitasking through a Chinese wall.

In places on his website, our man sounds more like a philosopher king than Brian Boru. "Irish people love their property, it's in their DNA, " says he.

As it turns out, this development has questions over it. The World Wildlife Fund claims it will endanger loggerhead turtles, which nest on the golden sands where Paddy hopes white skin will sizzle through red into brown. Offshore, the humpback whale could also get the bum's rush from these new strange people from the north.

The developer denies any such infringement, but it doesn't matter, for the main thing is that neither man nor beast shall stand in the way of the march of a nation to its destiny as the great foreign property owners of the 21st century.

Meanwhile, that other modern phenomenon, the '"roadshow', got underway last week, with the developer hauling his wares from city to city. Fronted by Eddie . . . who was only there to warn his people of the opportunities and risks involved in tapping into their DNA . . . the interest was just amazing. You gotta love it. As a modern Irish tale, you just gotta love it.

But let's be careful out there. You know what they say . . . pioneers get shot, settlers get rich. This place isn't long discovered. The natives may not understand that they are supposed to roll over and bow before Irish wealth. These punts into the untamed wilderness can be fraught with danger.

Remember what happened to Captain Cook? He thought he was on to a good thing too, but then he didn't have Eddie around to warn him of the dangers.