Ireland's Economic History

Gerard McCann

Description

This book explores the complex developments that have shaped Ireland's economic development, north and south, and led to recurring crises and instability.



The Irish economy has been traditionally portrayed as a product of its political divisions and the colonial legacy, divided and analysed in terms of the hegemonic tensions that exist on the island. Influenced by these divisions, academics have tended to look at a two-region approach to economic development, without adequately acknowledging the interactive nature of the island economy as a source of the crises or as a solution to systemic divergence.



McCann's definitive and dynamic history of the Irish economy circumvents conventional analyses and investigates the economic development of the island economy as a whole, highlighting where aggressive differentiation has been divisive and destabilising. He concludes by considering an alternative integrated and cohesive process of economic development.
Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. The colonial economy (1831–1860)

Land and laissez-faire

The famine economy

2. Post-famine adjustment and industrialization

(1861–1921)

The new reality

War as stimulus

3. Partition and depression (1921–1939)

The northern ‘dominion’

Economic war

4. The impact of war (1939–1957)

War economy in the north

Post-war reconstruction

5. Modernisation and the conflict economy (1958–1987)

Opening the north

Into the European Economic Community

The conflict economy in the north

The bleak 1980s

6. The peace dividend (1988–2001)

Integrating the border as an answer

Regionalisation as development

The Agreement

7. Neoliberal Ireland

From model to miracle

The collapse

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Economic History
• Ireland
• Economics
• Stephen Ireland
• Business

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 12 septembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783714896
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

IRELAND’S ECONOMIC HISTORY
 
 
 
Ireland’s Economic History
Crisis and Development in the North and South
Gerard McCann
 
 
 
First published 2011 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by
Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Distributed in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland by
Gill & Macmillan Distribution, Hume Avenue, Park West, Dublin 12, Ireland. Phone +353 1
500 9500. Fax [phone]. E-Mail: [e-mail]
Copyright © Gerard McCann 2011
The right of Gerard McCann to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3031 0    Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3030 3    Paperback ISBN 978 1 8496 4614 7    PDF eBook ISBN 978 1 7837 1490 2    Kindle eBook ISBN 978 1 7837 1489 6    EPUB eBook
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Curran Publishing Services, Norwich
Simultaneously printed digitally by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, UK and Edwards Bros in the United States of America
 
CONTENTS   Acknowledgements   Introduction 1 The colonial economy (1831–1860)   Land and laissez-faire   The famine economy 2 Post-famine adjustment and industrialization (1861–1921)   The new reality   War as stimulus 3 Partition and depression (1921–1939)   The northern ‘dominion’   Economic war 4 The impact of war (1939–1957)   War economy in the north   Post-war reconstruction 5 Modernization and the conflict economy (1958–1987)   Opening the north   Into the European Economic Community   The conflict economy in the north   The bleak 1980s 6 The peace dividend (1988–2001)   Integrating the border as an answer   Regionalization as development   The Agreement 7 Neoliberal Ireland   From model to miracle   The collapse   Conclusion   Bibliography   Index
 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is the product of a search through Irish economic history for ideas that could shed light on why the island has been so unfortunate in its progress and development. Tragedies have been recurrent and solutions have been elusive. In order to get some appreciation of the complexities of this turbulent history, I have trawled through primary and secondary documents which have marked the understanding of this topic. This research is built upon the platform created by a long list of economic historians, and hopefully a clearer overview of Irish economic history has resulted. In terms of acknowledgements, I would like to thank Roger van Zwanenberg for the initial idea and the encouragement to undertake such a task. Likewise, I would like to offer my appreciation to the Pluto staff and associates for their patience: Robert, Chris, Susan, Alec and Conor. For comments on the points made or reading drafts, I would like to acknowledge the help of Stephen McCloskey, Ciaran Crossey, Eoin Ó Broin, Charlie Fisher, Andy Storey, Peter Collins, Denis O’Hearn, Paul Hainsworth, Karen, Feilim, Doug, Angela and Birgit. Ba mhaith liom aitheantas a thabhairt do ról mo chomhghleacaithe ar an Fhóram Eacnamaíochta Iarthar Bhéal Feirtse as a ndíograis agus as an treoir a thug siad dom thar na blianta. Thanks are also due to the helpful librarians in St Mary’s University College, Queen’s University, Trinity College, Krosno College, Cork University, the Ulster Folk Museum, and the wonderful Linen Hall Library. Faults and flaws, neglect and oversights are due, in total, to the author.
 
INTRODUCTION
The collapse of the Irish economy in 2010 signalled the end of a particularly difficult period in Ireland’s economic history. As with the cessation of the conflict in the 1990s, the recent economic crisis has created a moment for reflection on the history of a troubled island. Typified by extremes and crises, the advanced neoliberal economy that became the Celtic Tiger did not leave a legacy of social enhancement or sustainability, but one of perversity, squander and poverty in equal measure. The greed that fixated the beneficiaries of this economic model contorted Irish society to leave a sense of victimhood for those caught in the fall-out of this type of economic development. Through it Irish society changed, as did the economy, but the neoliberal method of forcing a society into an artificial, eminently destructive economic process should be seen as not new to Irish history. Its patterns of development have been familiar, involving land deals, corrupt politicians, cronyism, monopolies, financial scandals and an ideology that has placed profit for a few above the needs of the rest. The disastrous outcomes have been similar across a number of moments in Irish economic history.
The collapse not only revealed the extent to which the Irish economy had become integrated into the broader European and global economic systems, it served to highlight the vacillating and diverging processes that have destabilized its economic base. Often against conventional economic wisdom, the various political gambles that have been taken have had a tendency to accentuate the peripheral position of the island, warp commercial activity, aggravate divisions across the island, and arguably frustrate social and economic development. The underlying problems are arguably a result of policy management and governance. Within the context of the European Union, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have remained anomalies, committed to the principles of European integration with its freedom of movement, integrated social market and dissolving borders, yet they have been divided against the general spirit of the treaties that were intended to bring Europe’s peoples closer together. Economic divergence on the island of Ireland has been endemic to its social and political make-up, leaving a system that has created one of the largest gaps between rich and poor in Europe and one of the most polarized and conflict-prone communities in the world. Apart from rare social market interventions, the economic management of the island has remained steadfastly conservative, monetarist and divisive, against the prevailing social democratic and democratic socialist trends prevalent on the continent.
An ideological understanding provides one answer to the question of why Ireland has suffered such a prolonged dislocation process. The disintegration of key financial, indigenous and public sectors in the southern economy with the end of the Celtic Tiger, and the entrenched dependency of the north on the British Treasury, have highlighted fault lines across the Irish economy. Ideological extremes have become systemic, not only affecting the political economy of the island, but also shaping a long and difficult economic history that has evolved out of colonial engagement, imbalanced industrial development, dependence on an agricultural base, a structural deficit, and disjointed strategies that have led to shocks and crises on a regular basis. The trauma that has been Irish economic history has to a large extent been a product of unsustainable development and a continual failure to overcome divergence across the island. Arguably, it has been a result of mismanagement by successive administrations throughout its modern history.
The Irish economy has conventionally been portrayed as a product of the island’s political history, divided and analysed as distinct entities, north and south, with each taking differing paths to development. Commentators and government agencies alike have looked at the two regions on the island in terms of absolutes, without adequately acknowledging the interactive nature of these border economies. From a policy perspective, the respective jurisdictions have been studied as separate, occasionally connecting, political entities while at a macroeconomic level the various points of interaction (particularly in Belfast and Dublin) have been evaluated from differing UK or EU perspectives. This skewed approach to Irish economic history suggests the need for analysis that circumvents the conventional policy bias, to investigate crises and change from a more integrated economic and ideological basis. One of the primary aims of this book is to highlight the systemic shocks that have come to shape these respective economic bases, north and south, and discuss the uneven patterns of development that have led to often volatile, often extreme, systems of economic management.
As an overview of the development of the economy on the island of Ireland, this polemic aims to search for policy links in an otherwise uneven process. In order to do this a chronological approach has been taken. To clarify the points being presented and to give the analysis a framework, the text has been arranged into successive periods of economic development: the colonial economy, famine, industrialization and militarization, partition, the war economies, the modernization process, the conflict economy, the role of the border, peace and reconciliation, neoliberal Ireland and the recession. Because of the scale of the undertaking, the research draws from both primary and secondary sources, with deference to the authoritative commentators who have specialized in the various periods covered. This study is built on their work. From this reading of modern Irish economic history three distinct features emerge: first, the conservative and often fundamentalist nature of economic theory as it has been applied to the Irish economy; second,