The Impact of Technology on Ireland’s Economic Growth and Development: Lessons for Developing Countries

This article follows the development of Ireland’s IT industries, focusing on the economic payoffs Ireland has received and the steps it has taken to avoid problems associated with being a low-cost IT producer, while focusing on Ireland’s growth to what the article describes as “clearly developed country.”

Following the Irish War of Independence in 1922, when Ireland achieved independence from the United Kingdom it had no industrial base, instead over 50% of the labor force was based in agriculture. Outsourcing is a great technique of globalization, as outlined in “The World is Flat,” and Ireland has consequently transferred production of labor intensive manufacturing to less developed countries in an effort to take advantage of lower labor costs. The countries approach has changed significantly since then and now believes that what is good for overseas is what is good for Ireland, but is it?

Ireland can now be best described as a country with two identities. Upon studying abroad in Ireland for four months I have seen both sides of the Irish paradigm. “Big city” Ireland is fighting to lose its Irish identity and become completely submerged in European culture. Dublin is populated with just as many Polish as there are Irish, and there is a threat that the Irish will one day become the minority in their own country. Irish customs of hospitality and cuisine are being replaced with European and American hustle-bustle. Traditional Irish meals such as Sheppard’s Pie and Irish Stew are no longer sold in any restaurant in downtown cities such as Cork or Dublin, with the exception of the traditional Temple Bar district in Dublin, which is a notable tourist attraction. Big Businesses such as Dell and Pepsi are infusing the market and Intel has even chosen to establish their European Union presence in Ireland. While the country is incredibly productive in IS technology, those who live there are not taking advantage of the technology that is being created in their own back doors. I agree with this statement. However, I believe that this is more a conscious decision than unconscious.
Ireland is not big cities such as Dublin or Cork, it is however the small towns. Environments in which everyone knows everyone else’s name, and you raise your children in homes with no locks on their doors, where people come and eat in your home because they are too tired to return to their own to cook the fish they spent all day catching. In a lot of ways this is what makes Ireland special. Upon traveling through Mallow, a small town 20 minutes outside of Cork City we were forced to pay by cash because credit cards were not accepted. Mallow is close enough to Cork City that a credit card system would be easy to come by, yet many owners find it unnecessary. Why buy on American Express or Visa when you could buy on “promise to pay” credit. The owner told me that if I didn’t have the cash now I could return whenever I had the time to settle up my bill. That is what Ireland is to me. The economist describes Ireland as a tale of two economies: “A still backward, unproductive labor-intensive one owned by the Irish, and a modern, exceptionally productive and capital-intensive one owned by foreigners.” There is an unparalleled amount of truth to this. While joining the European Union has become incredibly beneficial to the Ireland’s growth as an economy, is it truly beneficial to Ireland’s growth as a nation? Is Ireland still Irish? I believe it isn’t.