The story of the Celtic Tiger

For decades, the Irish economy was the laggard of Europe with poor growth rates, low income and mass emigration. GNP per capita (which excludes foreign-headquartered business) as a percentage of the EU15 average was just under 70% in 1960. It was little changed, oscillating slightly below 70%, until 1980. The decade of the 1980s was a dreadful time in the Irish economy and by the end of it per capita GNP had actually fallen to 65% of the EU average. From then on, however, things began to improve and just 10 years later Ireland had caught up with and, indeed, had moved ahead of the EU avera...