Читать книгу The Wild Atlantic Way and Western Ireland. 6 cycle tours along Ireland's west coast онлайн

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Ireland remained neutral during World War II. Its next major landmark came in 1973 as the country joined what was then the European Economic Community (now the EU) at the same time as its single largest trading partner the United Kingdom. By then ‘The Troubles’ had already broken out in Northern Ireland, where British troops were engaged and paramilitaries from pro-Republican and pro-British factions were on the streets. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998, ratified by all sides, brought an end to the violence, but political conflict and socio-political division remain.

Eye of the tiger

In the south of the island, economic growth had at best been stuttering since independence, while unrest in the north had blighted investment there since the 1970s. Historically, many of Ireland’s best and brightest left to pursue careers in Britain or further afield. At the start of the 1990s Ireland was a poor country by Western European standards but, driven by EU investment, low taxation, pro-business policies and the availability of a well-educated workforce, the economy entered a boom phase. The economy grew at over 9 per cent a year between 1995 and 2000 and continued to expand at up to 6 per cent a year until the global credit crisis began to hit in 2007-8.