Infant mortality in 1950 was 45 per 1,000 live births by last year it was just under two, making Ireland one of the safest places in the world to be born. Back in the 1950s average life expectancy was in the early 60s, while it has now risen by almost 20 years to 82. The economic growth that fuelled this progress is about far more than income per head. Growth is not some abstract end in itself but the means by which the lives of people can be improved
That is why the population of the State has almost doubled from 2.8 million in 1961 to 5.2 million today. Fast forward to 2021 and the figure for Ireland is $100,172, while the UK was less than half that at $46,510.Įven allowing for fact that Irish economic figures are distorted by the impact of multinational companies locating their profits here, the transformation in the relative wealth of the two countries has been astonishing. In 1960 the income per head of population here, as measured by the World Bank, was $685 a year, while in the UK it was more than double that at $1,398. The haemorrhage of young people fleeing our shores saw the population fall to its lowest level, with just 2.8 million people living in the State by 1961.Ī few figures illustrate the difference between then and now. The problem was that people were not a bit satisfied with frugal comfort and they left the country in their droves for England and United States. The architect of that Ireland was Éamon de Valera who, in his famous St Patrick’s Day broadcast of 1943, outlined the Arcadian dream of a country which “would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as the basis of right living, of a people who were satisfied with frugal comfort”. It also prided itself on a spiritual culture that contrasted with the materialistic aspirations of “godless England”.
It seems his desire for a shift in the national focus from material progress to ethics and a more balanced relationship with nature is widely shared.īut wait a minute: haven’t we been down that road before? Go back to the 1950s, and Ireland was a country that had turned its back on free trade in the belief that it would result in a protectionist paradise.
The President’s aversion to economic growth and the globalisation of trade appears to have struck a chord with many people if the letters columns of this newspaper are any yardstick.
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