Today we’re talking about Ireland’s raw deal. It’s on the far northwestern extreme of Europe, has a shitty climate and limited cultural development – hence the need for Guinness and Jameson. The biggest problem is that it’s positioned on the wrong side of Great Britain, so London’s relations with Europe and the wider world have huge implications for the Irish.

However, the upside to this unfortunate positioning has been that Ireland has proven able to serve as a broker between the EU and USA, the UK and EU, and the UK and USA. Benefiting from access to the greater European market and development funds, Ireland underwent Europe’s most rapid economic transformation, surging from the poorest to the richest country (in per capita terms) in less than 45 years.

But rapid development brings up a myriad of demographic problems, which Ireland is now facing head-on. In addition, the UK is moving away from the EU and starting to negotiate its own deals, meaning the broker (aka Ireland) loses its purpose. To add insult to injury, the scarcity of capital in Ireland has hit alarming levels.

So Ireland will need to reinvent themselves and find a fundamentally new model moving forward. The issue is doing all that in the face of demographic degradation and without breaking trade links. Or we could all just drink more Guinness for our Irish friends…