The signing of the Treaty between Ireland and Great Britain on December 6th, 1921 has been, and remains to be the subject of endless political scrutiny. The Treaty agreement resulted in the division of the island of Ireland into the twenty six counties of the “Free State” (now the Republic of Ireland) and the six counties of Northern Ireland which to this day, remain under British rule. Much of the debate on the signing of the Treaty has been concentrated on the decision by Eamonn de Valera, the President of Dail Eireann at the time to distance himself from the Treaty negotiations in London and instead, send his Finance Minister Michael Collins to negotiate the future of Ireland. Not only did the result of Michael Collins’ negotiations physically divide Ireland in two, it also divided the society of the newly independent Irish Free State into those who accepted the terms of the Treaty and those who vehemently opposed them. Interestingly, Eamonn de Valera fell into the latter category; he became a staunch opponent of the Treaty despite having chosen not to be part of its negotiation. Arguably, the Treaty was the pivotal event that shaped the culture, society, politics and economics of Ireland as we know it today. To that end, I will discuss three books that look at how the signing of the Treaty affected Ireland from an economic perspective.

In considering the post-Treaty economy of the Free State in his book “Ireland: A New Economic History” Cormac O’Grada, notes that in the wake of ratification of the Treaty, the government of Fianna Fail adopted a protectionist attitude towards new industries and “sought to reserve the domestic market for Irish capital”(CO’D 407.) The Fianna Fail government were committed to ensuring the success of Ireland’s infant industries and thus implemented an economic strategy that embraced the creation of tariffs (CO’D 406, 407.) Furthermore, the Control of Manufacturers Act was subsequently set up to legislate against foreign businessmen being able to find a way around the tariffs by building ‘tariff factories” in the new Free State (CO’D, 407.) However, O’Grada argues that this favoritism towards protectionism was entirely problematic for the success of the Irish economy. He notes that “policies of creating employment through protection and of protecting Irish capitalists through the Control of Manufacturers Acts were in conflict” (CO’D, 407.) O’Grada makes the point that what the Irish economy actually needed most was foreign direct investment; the very thing they were protecting themselves against (CO’D, 407, 408.)

In direct contrast to Cormac O’Grada, David Fitzpatrick in his book “Two Irelands 1912-1939” laments the existing economic connections between Ireland and Britain following the ratification of the Treaty. Fitzpatrick argues that despite the fact that “constitutional leaders” thought that the implementation of the Treaty would bring Ireland economic freedom from Britain, the Free State was still very much reliant economically on Britain even after it broke free from its governance  in 1921(DF, 26.) In fact in the aftermath of the ratification of the Treaty, England still “supplied four-fifths of [Ireland’s] imports and received almost all of its exports…”  (DF, 112.) Fitzpatrick further notes the irony of the fact that the large amount of emigrants from Ireland (due to unemployment) faced only Britain as an option to move to because the United States had placed a quota on the amount of immigrants it would accept (DF, 115.) Thus he finds that “National freedom had brought [Ireland] no economic transformation or marked material betterment…” or indeed economic autonomy from Britain (DF, 114.) Essentially, Fitzpatrick argues that Ireland was still heavily reliant on Britain economically.

Thomas Bartlett provides yet a third hypothesis on the post-Treaty economic state of Ireland in his book “Ireland.” Bartlett argues that the economy of Ireland’s new Free State was very much shaped by the previous colonial institutions set up by Britain. Thus he posits that the social and economic shape that the new Irish Free State took on was a product of the institutions set up by Britain prior to independence. In support of this, he notes that “there was almost no area of government, law, education, or social policy that did not bear the stamp of the former [British] rulers” (TB, 420.) Bartlett observes that the Irish government thought that there was no need to do anything  to help the economy because the freedom of the Republic would automatically lead Ireland to prosperity (TB, 424, 425.) Because of this, Bartlett argues that any success gained by the Irish economy post-Treaty was a result of the prior institutional foundations of the British.

These three authors each provide unique and interesting perspectives on how the economy of the newly independent Ireland was shaped after the signing of the Treaty. Of the three books, the most intriguing is Cormac O’Grada’s due to his exceptional attention to detail.

Bartlett, Thomas. Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Fitzpatrick, David. The Two Irelands 1912-1939. Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 1998.

O’Grada, Cormac. Ireland: A New Economic History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

When you think of Ireland, green fields, luscious sweeping countryside, quaint farmhouses and medieval castles probably spring to mind. Ireland is undoubtedly a beautiful country but, upon visiting there you might be surprised to come across a sprinkling of Starbucks coffee houses in many cities, an Abercrombie & Fitch store on an old cobblestone street in Dublin and countless branches of large multinationals such as Intel, Microsoft and Facebook nestled in industrial parks on the outskirts of almost all of Ireland’s major towns. With a highly competitive corporate tax rate of approximately 12.5% it is clear that Ireland is committed to the promotion of foreign industry investment and to being part of the world economy.

But Ireland wasn’t always so industrially focused – at least not the southern part of the country (the south of Ireland became the Republic of Ireland in 1931 upon gaining sovereign independence from Britain.) At the turn of the 20th century, southern Ireland’s economy still very much centered around agriculture. Interestingly, as much as the south of Ireland’s economy relied on agriculture, Northern Ireland’s economy in contrast relied heavily on industry – mainly shipbuilding. In fact, both Northern Ireland and the south of Ireland had opposite policy approaches to their respective economies in the early years of the 20th century. The south of Ireland had a free market policy towards agriculture and a protectionist policy towards its limited industry. In direct contrast, Northern Ireland adopted a free market policy perspective towards industry and a protectionist attitude towards agriculture!

Northern Ireland’s heavy reliance on the world economy for the success of its shipbuilding industry proved catastrophic economically during the Great Depression. However, because the Republic of Ireland was not as heavily engaged industrially with the world economy up to this point, it remained relatively unscathed by the Great Depression. The turning point for industry in the Republic of Ireland came in 1938 with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement between Ireland and England.  From this point, Ireland set about nurturing its infant industries via the promotion of more stringent protectionist policies in order to become more integrated with the world economy.

By: Fiona Logan