Today, Ireland’s economy is experiencing growth rates between 5 and 10% annually, a boom that has been centered on Dublin.  Ironically, this boom has come to Dublin despite the fact that the Industrial Revolution hardly transformed Ireland.  The economy has traditionally been based on the export of agricultural goods, the legacy of colonialism.  While colonialism under the British Crown hindered Irish economic development (though it did contribute to Dublin’s primacy), Ireland also never experienced the population boom that almost invariably accompanies urbanization and industrialization.  Political weakness and resulting famine and death ultimately made Dublin one of the largest jumping off points for immigration to England, the United States, and Australia.  Until recently, the upper crust of educated Dubliners (excepting artists) perpetuated a trend of leaving Dublin to find better job opportunities elsewhere.  Without this group of leaders, the economy suffered.  The one mainstay of Dublin’s economy has been the Guinness Brewery at St. James Gate, which will stay in Dublin indefinitely, given its 9000 year lease for 45 pounds a year.

Dublin’s problems began in part because joblessness ran high when agriculture modernized and demanded less labor.  Low industrialization provided few jobs for this gradually urbanizing population.  Workers who had been employed in Dublin early in the 19th century lost their jobs when colonial interests stopped the protection of Irish manufactured goods.  Fewer and fewer members of Dublin’s working class actually worked, which offers some explanation for the noted leisurely pace of life in Dublin.  To remedy national unemployment, the government targeted areas with over 1,500 persons as centers for development in the 60s and 70s.  This also discriminated against Dublin, since the vast majority of new jobs (over 90%) were created elsewhere.  While Dublin has 30% of Ireland’s population, is has only 23% of its manufacturing capacity.  The recent boom has made Dublin feel fortunate for its historic lack of industry, however.  As its tertiary sector has grown and the circulation systems of Europe have made amenity zones like central Dublin more attractive, accessible, and viable, a whole technology industry has blossomed.  American computer companies such as Gateway 2000 and Intel, as well as English pharmaceutical and Irish startup companies have grown into the industrial base of Dublin.  Thanks to massive E.U. funding (Ireland joined in 1973 and was recently still getting $3 Billion per year in subsidies), Dublin has been able to provide the infrastructure that has allowed it to become a leader in teleservicing.  Today, Ireland’s GDP per capita is higher than Britain’s.  The educated elite are staying in Dublin; some 44,000 people moved into Dublin in 1997, many of these being established white-collar Dubliners who had left Ireland for better jobs in New York and London. Skilled workers are in high demand, and Dublin has a labor shortage related to a lack of construction workers and electricians needed to facilitate growth.    However, the working class has seen far fewer gains, and more than a couple Dublin neighborhoods which were once used as stand-ins for Communist Bloc ghettoes by western filmmakers remain.
Exemplary of Dublin’s recent rise in the European hierarchy is that while it was once common to hear “God bless the German taxpayer” (for E.U. funding for infrastructure improvement), Dubliners are soon to be saying “curse the Polish unemployed” (for being the main beneficiary of the subsidies that Ireland will likely be paying). Check out some Dublin (and beer)-related links