Ireland underwent a dramatic economic and social transformation from the 1990s onwards, earning it the title the "Celtic Tiger". Rapid economic growth was accompanied by substantial in-migration. However in the later 2000s Ireland is also experiencing a severe economic recession. This book examines the nature and geographies of the Celtic Tiger, focusing on the evolution of industries such as information and communication technology and pharamaceuticals. It also examines the changing nature of social ties in cities, trends amongst knowledge workers and the experiences of return migrants. It concludes with reflections on the nature of the Celtic Tiger phenomenon and how this will shape Ireland’s geography and society into the future. This book was published as a special issue of Irish Geography.

Ireland in the World Order examines Ireland's development from the medieval to the modern era, comparing its unique trajectory with that of England, Scotland, and Wales. Maurice Coakley focuses on key elements that contributed to Ireland's development, examining its bloody and violent incorporation into the British state, its refusal to embrace the Protestant Reformation, and failure to industrialize in the 19th century. Coakley considers the crucial question of why Ireland's national identity has come to rest on a mass movement for independence. Cutting through many of the myths – imperialist and nationalist – which have obscured the real reasons for Ireland's course of development, Ireland in the World Order provides a new perspective for students and academics of Irish history.

This essential new history of the Irish state synthesises existing research with new findings, and adopts fresh perspectives based on neglected European and American debates. It examines the evolution of Irish diplomacy from six consulate officers in the 1920s to sixty ambassadors in the 2010s, and provides an overview of a century of Ireland's diplomatic history that has previously only been examined in a piecemeal fashion. The author's original research findings are focussed particularly on Ireland's struggle for independence in a global context, and his original analysis gives an account of how the economic performance of the Irish state formed a perpetual context for its role in international relations even when this was not a priority of its diplomats. Equal attention is paid to the history of international Irish trade, the operations of bilateral Irish relations, and multilateral diplomacy. It highlights how the Irish state came to find its role in international relations mostly by means of the UN and EU, and analyses this trend in the light of international relations theory and European history.

A radical new perspective revealing the truth behind the making of modern Ireland from economic rebirth to entering the EEC.

With clarity and depth, Gerard McCann explores the complex developments that have shaped Ireland’s economic development, north and south, and led to recurring crises and instability. The Irish economy has been traditionally portrayed as a product of its political divisions and the colonial legacy, divided and analyzed in terms of the hegemonic tensions that exist on the island. Influenced by these divisions, academics have tended to look at a two-region approach to economic development, without adequately acknowledging the interactive nature of the island economy as a source of the crises or as a solution to systemic divergence. McCann's definitive and dynamic history of the Irish economy circumvents conventional analyses and investigates the economic development of the island economy as a whole, highlighting where aggressive differentiation has been divisive and destabilizing. He concludes by considering an alternative integrated and cohesive process of economic development.

This book provides a cogent summary of the economic history of the Irish Free State/Republic of Ireland. It takes the Irish story from the 1920s right through to the present, providing an excellent case study of one of many European states which obtained independence during and after the First World War. The book covers the transition to protectionism and import substitution between the 1930s and the 1950s and the second major transition to trade liberalisation from the 1960s. In a wider European context, the Irish experience since EEC entry in 1973 was the most extreme European example of the achievement of industrialisation through foreign direct investment. The eager adoption of successive governments in recent decades of a neo-liberal economic model, more particularly de-regulation in banking and construction, has recently led the Republic of Ireland to the most extreme economic crash of any western society since the Great Depression.

This book examines Irish economic development in the twentieth century compared with other European countries. It traces the growth of the Republic's economy from its separation from Britain in the early 1920s through to the present. It assesses the factors which encouraged and inhibited economic development, and concludes with an appraisal of the country's present state and future prospects.

This provocative new history of Ireland during the long 1960s exposes the myths of Ireland's modernisation. Mary E. Daly questions traditional interpretations which see these years as a time of prosperity when Irish society – led by a handful of key modernisers – abandoned many of its traditional values in its search for economic growth. Setting developments in Ireland in a wider European context, Daly shows instead that claims for the economic transformation of Ireland are hugely questionable: Ireland remained one of the poorest countries in western Europe until the end of the twentieth century. Contentious debates in later years over contraception, divorce, and national identity demonstrated continuities with the past that long survived the 1960s. Spanning the period from Ireland's economic rebirth in the 1950s to its entry into the EEC in 1973, this is a comprehensive reinterpretation of a critical period in Irish history with clear parallels for Ireland today.

This title is suitable for final year undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in the fields of Irish studies, development economics and comparative history.

This compelling volume re-examines the topic of economic growth in Europe after the Second World War. The contributors approach the subject armed not only with new theoretical ideas, but also with the experience of the 1980s on which to draw. The analysis is based on both applied economics and on economic history. Thus, while the volume is greatly informed by insights from growth theory, emphasis is given to the presentation of chronological and institutional detail. The case study approach and the adoption of a longer-run perspective than is normal for economists allow new insights to be obtained. As well as including chapters that consider the experience of individual European countries, the book explores general European institutional arrangements and historical circumstances. The result is a genuinely comparative picture of post-war growth, with insights that do not emerge from standard cross-section regressions based on the post-1960 period.