Historical Notes: Booming benefits of `Operation Shamrock'

AFTER YEARS of low economic growth rates, high unemployment and mass emigration, Ireland is today associated with a booming economy - the so-called "Celtic Tiger". Twenty-six years after joining the European Economic Community, Ireland has started to reap the benefits of being enthusiastically pro-European. European subsidies, financed by wealthier member states such as Germany, have provided the funds necessary to develop the country's infrastructure, while the open markets of Europe have drawn numerous foreign companies to Ireland's shores. Young people, instead of emigrating in their masses as they did in the 1980s, are staying at home or indeed returning to Ireland from America, England and Germany to take up highly paid positions.

The contrast with the Ireland of the 1940s and 1950s, plagued by unemployment and immigration, isolated in foreign policy due to the country's neutrality in the Second World War, could not be greater. It was, however, in this post-war period when Ireland took the first tentative steps towards a new Europe. In the years immediately following the war, Ireland played a major role in offering help to the war-torn countries of Europe, and, due to historic cultural and religious links, it was to Germany that much of this assistance was directed.

German children were brought to Ireland to recover from the traumas of the war under the programme christened "Operation Shamrock", financial and material donations were made through organisations such as Caritas and the Red Cross, and German-Irish societies were set up to re-establish important cultural links in the fields of literature and language.

From these initial contacts there developed the first post-war trade links with Germany - Irish politicians at the time were determined to increase the importance of the European market in order to move away from economic dependence on Britain. During the 1950s Germany became the chief mainland European trading partner for Ireland.

In a world increasingly polarised between America and Russia, Ireland was slowly beginning to move on from its past, dominated by the struggle with Britain, and found itself looking towards Europe. By 1973, when Ireland officially joined the EEC, the economic, cultural and political links with Europe which had been developing since the post-war period were well established. The European Community provided an open market for Irish products and Irish emmigrants seeking employment - the countless Irish pubs in Germany testify to the strength of the Irish population there. These days the same pubs are covered with posters advertising for Irish workers to return home to feed the ever-increasing labour shortage. When they do, they cannot believe the quantity of chic cafes, designer shops and BMW-owners that now characterise the city of Dublin.

Another new feature is the large number of foreign workers serving in bars and restaurants, working on the building sites and manning the many call-centres throughout Ireland. This is thanks to the EU, which guarantees European citizens the freedom to live and work in any European state of their choice. Not all foreigners are as welcome, however, and it remains to be seen whether the Irish state accept the responsibility which comes with increasing prosperity of offering refuge to those seeking political asylum. Those German children who were given a second chance at life by the Irish people after the Second World War have never forgotten this generosity and have maintained their links to Ireland.

It was through such small steps that Ireland opened up to Europe. It remains to be seen in what way Irish society opens up to the challenges and chances of a prosperous European society.

Cathy Molohan is the author of `Germany and Ireland, 1945-1955: two nations' friendship' (Irish Academic Press, pounds 35)