Ireland and the European Union

Ireland's membership in the European Union has coincided with its transformation from a peripheral poor state into a dynamic economy with a level of wealth in line with the union's core states. This has led to great interest in the Irish model among other poorer, small state members of the EU--especially those in the 2004 accession round. In this major new assessment, Brigid Laffan and Jane O'Mahony provide a systematic analysis of the impact of the EU on Ireland and Ireland's impact on the EU.