Today marks the 50th anniversary of the second most important event since the foundation of the State in 1921: Ireland’s accession to the EU (then known as the EEC) on January 1st 1973.
The UK and Denmark also joined the EU on this day 50 years ago which expanded the membership of the EEC from six to nine Member States, marking the first expansion since the Treaty of Rome in 1957.
In my own humble opinion, Ireland’s membership of the EU transformed our economy and society for the better, raising living standards immeasurably, improving our quality of life and transforming our society with respect to equality and tolerant, educated and open-minded attitudes.
One of the first things Ireland did after EU membership in 1973 was to abolish the civil service/public sector marriage bar, where women had to leave their jobs once they were married. This was a pre-condition of EU membership.
Many significant changes in terms of our then Third World infrastructure in transportation and telecommunications took place between 1975 and 2000 with the support of a massive injection of funds from Brussels as we were a poor country by Western European standards, with a GNP per capita less than 60 per cent of the EU average at the time of joining.
Investment in education, particularly at third level, with the assistance of the EU regional development fund helped lay a critical foundation for our Celtic Tiger economic transformation and massive FDI in information technology, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and financial services which propelled Ireland from an industrialising but still very fragile economy in 1973 into the wealthy country that Ireland is today.
We owe much of our success to EU membership and being part of the European project. The UK of course has left the EU via Brexit and the results of that move have become apparent.
What do you make of our half century in the EU? Has is been good - or bad?
Where do you see Ireland going over the next 50 years as a EU member?
