* Strong week of economic data points to growing momentum
* Economy to grow almost three times faster than euro zone average
* Risks remain with personal debts high, vulnerable exports
By Conor Humphries and Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Ireland is significantly bucking the trend in the euro zone's stalled recovery with evidence building from companies to consumers that the economy is set to grow faster than most on the continent this year and beyond.
It's not back to Celtic Tiger days by any means.
The economy may match that of 2006 by the end of the year, but will still be off the 2007 pre-crisis high. House prices are still more than 40 percent off their peak and 2014 unemployment is likely to 11 percent.
But there are definite signs of a substantive turnaround from the crisis that forced Ireland into a European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout in late 2010.
Unemployment has fallen for eight straight quarters, upbeat consumers bought more cars in the first seven months of the year than the whole of 2013, and exports are rebounding.
Ireland's economy is now expected to grow by over 3 percent this year.
"Given the position we are coming from in Ireland, there has been quite a rebound. We would be confident that growth is going to continue, probably for a number of years," Gene Murtagh, chief executive of Irish building materials group Kingspan , told Reuters.
"But it all needs to be put in perspective. We are not talking about a bounce back to the crazy days. I'd say it's more a gradual move back to what you might call normality."
That normality was evident in data on Monday that showed manufacturing activity last month hit its highest level since 1999, the last period of sustainable growth in Ireland before a property bubble and subsequent banking and fiscal crises brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy.
While Ireland represents just four percent of Kingspan's global insulation and materials business, sales volumes and orders at home are growing substantially, the company said in its half-year results last week.
Fellow building group Grafton saw a 15 percent rise in its Irish merchanting business as it almost doubled its profits in the first six months of the year. Ireland's two main banks returned to profit for the first time in five years in the same period.
Such renewed optimism among Ireland's largest companies was reflected in a slew of positive data last week showing retail sales growing strongly, a housing recovery beginning to spread outside the main cities and tourism up 10 percent year-to-date.