The "Celtic Tiger": Ireland's Journey to Economic Modernity

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Overview

"The name 'Celtic Tiger' emerged because Ireland's rates of growth in recent years have been sustained at levels close to those of the four Asian Tigers-South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore." - Paul Sweeny [1]

Description

The Irish economy has undergone an extensive transformation in the past several decades. At an all-time high in the mid 1980’s, Ireland’s unemployment rate reached 17 percent, job growth averaged -1.3 percent, and net emigration soared, peaking at forty-four thousand in 1989. Even until the early 1980’s Ireland remained a traditional, agricultural economy that seemed almost resistant to the industrialization process that was sweeping its neighboring countries. This state of economic depression is now contrasted to Ireland’s uninterrupted span of economic success that ignited in the early 1990’s. How was Ireland able to double its per capita income in just 11 years? And how did it come to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the European Union? Once considered one of the poorest countries in the world, Ireland is now among the richest in the EU. With such an impressive performance, this is truly the work of a “Celtic Tiger”.

Created by: Karen Phelps, Allyson Teatom, and Vertika Tiwary