A Look at Ireland Early in the 21st Century

author, The Celtic Tiger: Miracle or Myth. As will be discussed, part of this success was attributed to the strength of the United States ’ (US) economy and the close ties of Ireland and the US. Because of these close ties, many economic experts predicted that when the US economy slowed down in 2000 and 2001, the Irish economy would follow suit. This paper will initially attempt to assess the accuracy of that prediction by looking at how the Irish economy did during the first five years of the 21st century. A second concern with the success of the Celtic Tiger was that the benefits derived there from were not received proportionally throughout the economy. In other words, one outcome of the Celtic Tiger was that the rich became richer while the poor were left further behind, similar to what occurred in the US during the 1980s. This paper will, therefore, secondarily attempt to determine whether this concern has been borne out in fact or not. Another factor that no doubt contributed to the success of the Irish economy was the fact that it is a member of the European Union (EU). As a result of EU membership Ireland received significant benefits from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and from the receipt of structural and cohesion funds during the 1990s. Not surprisingly the Irish voters have long bee