Irish economic development: past, present, future?

From an economic perspective, the most positive outcome of the treaty negotiations (ratified in 1922) was that the Irish Free State acquired full fiscal autonomy from the UK thereafter.

But our new study of Irish economic history since independence has revealed that the economy performed very poorly in the inter war years relative to the British and European economies, despite vigorous attempts to encourage growth, initially through improving agricultural exports in the 1920s and subsequently through import substitution and protectionism.

The small size of the market and the limited supply of raw materials made the economy highly unsuited to protectionism. Furthermore, Ireland’s continued economic dependence on Britain led to labour and capital migrating to the more powerful British economy in the following decades, preventing any meaningful development. The Second World War only made matters worse. The “Emergency” resulted in a far greater economic crisis than our current predicament, as food and fuel supplies contracted and only unprecedented levels of state intervention in supplies, distribution and production averted a major catastrophe.