Editing Ireland (section)

====Independence====
{{main|History of the Republic of Ireland|Economy of the Republic of Ireland}}
[[File:Anglo-Irish Treaty Griffith annotated2.gif|thumb|Annotated page from the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] that established the [[Irish Free State]] and independence for 26 out of 32 [[Counties of Ireland|Irish counties]]]]
During its first decade, the newly formed Irish Free State was governed by the victors of the civil war. When de Valera achieved power, he took advantage of the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]] and [[Edward VIII abdication crisis|political circumstances]] to build upon inroads to greater sovereignty made by the previous government. The oath was abolished and in 1937 a new constitution was adopted.<ref name="autogenerated34"/> This completed a process of gradual separation from the British Empire that governments had pursued since independence. However, it was not until 1949 that the state was declared, officially, to be the [[Republic of Ireland]].

[[Irish neutrality|The state was neutral]] during [[The Emergency (Ireland)|World War II]], but offered [[Irish neutrality during World War II|clandestine assistance to the Allies]], particularly in the potential defence of Northern Ireland. Despite their country's neutrality, approximately 50,000<ref>{{cite news |last=Connolly |first=Kevin |title=Irish who fought on the beaches |publisher=BBC News |date=1 June 2004 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3749629.stm |access-date=8 November 2008 |archive-date=17 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217024027/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3749629.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> volunteers from independent Ireland joined the British forces during the war, four being awarded [[Victoria Crosses]].

The [[Abwehr|German intelligence]] was also active in Ireland.<ref name="autogenerated695">Hull, Mark: "The Irish Interlude: German Intelligence in Ireland, 1939–1943", ''Journal of Military History'', Vol. 66, No. 3 (July 2002), pp. 695–717</ref> Its operations ended in September 1941 when [[Garda Síochána|police]] made arrests based on surveillance carried out on the key diplomatic legations in Dublin. To the authorities, counterintelligence was a fundamental line of defence. With a regular army of only slightly over seven thousand men at the start of the war, and with limited supplies of modern weapons, the state would have had great difficulty in defending itself from invasion from either side in the conflict.<ref name="autogenerated695"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Carroll |first=Joseph T. |title=Ireland in the War Years 1939–1945 |publisher=International Scholars Publishers |date=2002 |location=San Francisco |page=190 |isbn=978-1-57309-185-5}}</ref>

Large-scale emigration marked most of the post-WWII period (particularly during the 1950s and 1980s), but beginning in 1987 the economy improved, and the 1990s saw the beginning of substantial economic growth. This period of growth became known as the [[Celtic Tiger]].<ref name=clancy3>{{cite book|last1=Clancy |first1=Patrick |first2=Sheelagh |last2=Drudy |first3=Kathleen |last3=Lynch |first4=Liam |last4=O'Dowd |title=Irish Society: Sociological Perspectives |pages=[https://archive.org/details/irishsociety00patr/page/68 68–70] |publisher=Institute of Public Administration |date=1997 |isbn=978-1-872002-87-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/irishsociety00patr/page/68 }}</ref> The Republic's real GDP grew by an average of 9.6% per annum between 1995 and 1999,<ref>{{cite book |first=Doris |last=Schmied |title=Winning and Losing: the Changing Geography of Europe's Rural Areas |publisher=Ashgate |location=Chippenham, UK |date=2005 |page=234 |isbn=978-0-7546-4101-8}}</ref> in which year the Republic joined the [[euro]]. In 2000, it was the sixth-richest country in the world in terms of GDP per capita.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]] (OECD) |title=The Future of International Migration to OECD Countries |location=Paris |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t-MXbmt8J5YC&q=%22The+Future+of+International+Migration+to+OECD+Countries%22 |isbn=978-92-64-04449-4 |year=2009 |access-date=26 October 2020 |archive-date=5 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205175831/https://books.google.com/books?id=t-MXbmt8J5YC&q=%22The+Future+of+International+Migration+to+OECD+Countries%22 |url-status=live }}</ref> Historian [[R. F. Foster (historian)|R. F. Foster]] argues the cause was a combination of a new sense of initiative and the entry of American corporations. He concludes the chief factors were low taxation, pro-business regulatory policies, and a young, tech-savvy workforce. For many multinationals, the decision to do business in Ireland was made easier still by generous incentives from the [[IDA Ireland|Industrial Development Authority]]. In addition [[European Union]] membership was helpful, giving the country lucrative access to markets that it had previously reached only through the United Kingdom, and pumping huge subsidies and investment capital into the Irish economy.<ref>R. F. Foster, ''Luck and the Irish: A Brief History of Change 1970–2000'' (2007), pp 7–36</ref>

Modernisation brought secularisation in its wake. The traditionally high levels of religiosity have sharply declined. Foster points to three factors: First, Irish feminism, largely imported from America with liberal stances on contraception, abortion and divorce, undermined the authority of bishops and priests. Second, the mishandling of the paedophile scandals humiliated the Church, whose bishops seemed less concerned with the victims and more concerned with covering up for errant priests. Third, prosperity brought hedonism and materialism that undercut the ideals of saintly poverty.<ref>Foster, ''Luck and the Irish'' pp 37–66.</ref>

The [[Post-2008 Irish economic downturn|financial crisis]] that began in 2008 dramatically ended this period of boom. GDP fell by 3% in 2008 and by 7.1% in 2009, the worst year since records began (although earnings by foreign-owned businesses continued to grow).<ref>{{cite news |first=Shawn |last=Pogatchnik |title=Ireland's Economy Suffered Record Slump in 2009 |work=[[Bloomberg BusinessWeek]] |date=25 March 2010 |access-date=6 April 2010 |url= http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9ELOCOG1.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150208020158/http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9ELOCOG1.htm |archive-date=8 February 2015}}</ref> The state has since experienced deep recession, with unemployment, which doubled during 2009, remaining above 14% in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |title=Measuring Ireland's Progress 2011 |website=CSO.ie |publisher=[[Central Statistics Office (Ireland)|Central Statistics Office]] |date=October 2012 |page=36 |url=http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/releasespublications/documents/otherreleases/2011/measuringirelandsprogress2011.pdf |issn=1649-6728 |access-date=30 August 2015 |archive-date=23 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923223057/http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/releasespublications/documents/otherreleases/2011/measuringirelandsprogress2011.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>