On March 17th everyone is an honorary Irishman. In North America the celebrations reach epic proportions in Chicago, (where the river temporarily runs green), Boston and New York, three American cities where more than 2 million Irish immigrants arrived over time to carve out new lives. And there is much to celebrate. As a small country with only 5 million people, Ireland punches well above its weight culturally. With its astonishing litany of renowned writers and poets, legendary actors and musicians, Ireland has made a huge contribution to western civilization. This alone would be worth celebrating, but it is worth noting that there are other equally important reasons why Ireland’s success should be recognized, and not just today.
Present-day Ireland is a leading light in the European Union and among all western liberal democracies. It is among the most socially progressive and democratically stable countries, and its modern knowledge-based economy has earned it the moniker of the Celtic Tiger.
This enviable situation is all the more remarkable when contrasted with its tortuous past. It can hardly be overstated that Ireland was the victim of English colonialism and genocide. And unlike the Scots, who suffered at the hands of the English in other ways, the Irish were invaded and colonized by the English. The English occupation of Ireland lasted for centuries. Most significantly, the Cromwellian victory in the 17th century resulted in the Ulster Plantations, which deliberately settled English Protestants in the northern part of Ireland. Meanwhile the Penal Laws introduced by the occupiers in that period prevented Catholics – virtually all of the native Irish — from owning land. As a result generations of English aristocracy not only ran the political system but seized much of the remaining land, often operating as absentee landlords, and reduced the natives to serfs in their own country.
Although this may seem to have little significance for Canadians, there are in fact a number of important links with the Irish struggles. First and foremost, although a number of rebel groups in Ireland had made several attempts to overthrow the English by force, none had been remotely successful. Consequently by the mid-nineteenth century the most prominent of these rebel groups was the Fenian Brotherhood who, ironically, were located not in Ireland but in the United States. Formed in 1858, the Fenian’s plan was to invade the British colonies to the north, in what would later become Canada, attempting to capture enough land there to force the British to leave Ireland in exchange for the return of their Canadian holdings.
As outlined in several historical accounts of the period, the Fenian Raids that began in 1866 were directly responsible for spurring on the British colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Upper and Lower Canada to finally reach a consensus on forming a confederation in 1867 for defensive purposes. [i]
Even more significant for Canadians was the presence of a former Irishman, Thomas D’arcy McGee, among the Fathers of Confederation who crafted this agreement. McGee, who had originally emigrated to the US, was always a strong proponent of Irish independence but he was also a strong supporter of minority rights. He quickly became disenchanted with the treatment of the Irish in America and moved to Montreal in the Canadian colonies, which he considered to be far more respectful of religious and linguistic differences. There he soon established a reputation as an eloquent orator and persuasive journalist, and by 1857 he was elected to the provincial legislature of Canada, where he served at one point as John A. MacDonald’s Minister of Agriculture. A fervent supporter of federalism, he attended both the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864 and delivered two speeches in favour of the project which were widely considered to be among the most important and influential.[ii] At the same time, he was well-known to be critical of the Fenians, arguing that such violence was both unnecessary and unlikely to succeed. In April of 1868 he was fatally shot in Ottawa by an assailant assumed to be a member of the Fenians, thereby becoming Canada’s first and only victim of political assassination.
Arguably the nadir of Ireland’s lengthy period of oppression came with the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-9, when more than 1 million Irish died of starvation and another 1.5 million were forced to flee the country, most to North America. The death toll was made far worse by the deliberate decision of the English government to withhold assistance, due in part to a belief that the famine was divine retribution for the ‘moral laxity’ of the Irish, who stubbornly clung to Catholicism, and in part to the incredible belief of many in Victorian England that the Irish were a black, sub-human species.[iii]
Although greatly weakened by the famine, Irish resistance to British rule expanded dramatically afterwards, leading to the Easter Rebellion of 1916 which was brutally suppressed. (A tragedy memorialized in a poem by W.B. Yeats with his iconic line “a terrible beauty is born.”) As a result of British brutality the initial support of many Irish for some type of Home Rule as a compromise was replaced by a demand for full independence. The subsequent bitterly fought War of Independence culminated in 1921 with the Anglo-Irish Treaty that established the Irish Free State, (the Republic of Ireland). But it left the 13 northernmost counties in the hands of the British as Northern Ireland, primarily because the Protestant population there opposed the move and demanded British protection, fearing Catholic retribution.
But even independence did not immediately lead to a vastly improved situation for most ordinary Irish citizens. The economy was primarily agrarian and non-industrial, and the country was among the poorest in western Europe. Meanwhile Irish society was increasingly restricted by the growing power of the Catholic Church. Although the Church had always been seen as a key element of Irish identity, after independence its newfound ability to influence healthcare, education and political decision-making became entrenched and lasted for nearly seventy years, leaving Irish society as a backwater of modern life. (Quebecers in particular may well notice the similarities with the situation in their province before the Quiet Revolution.)
It was only in the 1990’s that this situation began its dramatic turnaround. In part this was due to strong institutional foundations of liberal democracy, including respect for civil liberties, and democratic accountability, in particular through the distinctive use of referenda and citizens’ assemblies, innovations referred to as the “Irish Model.” (While many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of these innovations, it is also worth noting that they may well be particularly appropriate to the Irish situation and not widely transferable).
In terms of social progress this dramatic shift was also accelerated as a result of the actions of the Church itself in Ireland. Innumerable scandals related to the maltreatment of unwed mothers and infants in convents, and the sexual abuse of young boys by priests, dramatically altered the public perception of and commitment to the Church. As a result, the secularization of society and the political system ensued, and led to the adoption of progressive measures once considered unattainable, including legalization of homosexuality (1993) divorce (1997) same sex marriage (2015) and abortion (2018). In addition the country currently has among the most progressive measures for immigrant settlement and integration, housing and employment. The emancipation of women, meanwhile, has been exemplified by the election of three women as president between 1990 and the present, including Mary Robinson (1990-97) who later served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Meanwhile a succession of Irish governments had been working to modernize the economy, attract foreign capital and increase the working age population by encouraging the Irish diaspora to return. They had also placed a heavy emphasis on public education and advanced training in the skilled trades. The results were evident by the early 1990’s and by 1995 the moniker of Celtic Tiger had been introduced to describe a modern economy that was among the leading lights of the European Union. Ireland today has a highly developed, export-oriented knowledge economy, largely driven by multinational investment in technology, life sciences, pharmaceuticals and financial services. In 2025 Ireland’s GDP growth was an impressive 10-12% and this is expected to continue in 2026, along with low unemployment and further progress toward elimination of a budgetary deficit cause by pandemic support measures.
Simply put, Ireland is a democratic success story. It has managed to overcome centuries of oppression, first by the English and then by the Catholic Church, and establish a solid institutional base for democratic participation and accountability and civil liberties. It has undergone a dramatic shift from a conservative society to a socially progressive one, even as it moved from an impoverished nineteenth century agrarian economy to a modern knowledge-based one in less than fifty years.
These accomplishments are in stark contrast to the situation in Northern Ireland, which remains under British control. Despite the famous Easter Accord of April 1998, negotiated by a tripartite panel that included Canadian General John de Chastelain,[iv] the end of armed sectarian violence in the north has not been replaced by a thriving integrated society, and peace has only been achieved if defined as merely the absence of war. In many respects Northern Ireland remains in a state of limbo, one which has been made far worse economically by the recent ill-fated decision of the English to leave the European Union. [v]
It is in this context that recent discussions have begun to focus once again on the possibility of the unification of the north with the Irish Republic, a union based on the principles of federalism so ardently promoted by one of their countrymen. Although the prospects are still slim, the effects of Brexit may yet prove the tipping point for such discussions. D’Arcy McGee would be pleased.
[i] https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/fenian-raids
[ii] See for example https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2012/03/confederations-martyr/
[iii] Coogan, Tim Pat.(2012). The Famine Plot: England’s Role in Ireland’s Greatest Tragedy. St. Martin’s Press. See also “British History in depth: The Irish Famine”. BBC History. 2023 and “Racism and Anti-Irish Prejudice in Victorian England”. victorianweb.org.
[iv] https://www.policymagazine.ca/celebrating-25-years-of-peace-in-northern-ireland-and-the-quiet-canadian-who-got-the-guns/
[v] Note that Scotland voted overwhelmingly to Remain, but the much greater English population prevailed. Ireland, meanwhile, remains solidly in the EU, an advantage which becomes increasingly obvious, and profitable, as the British economy collapses.
