Dublin, the most populous city in Ireland, has attained more and more of an international character as this century has progressed, now being listed as an "Alpha-" city in the prestigious rankings of the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Though unlikely to ever reach the "Alpha ++" plateau that is lorded over by New York City and London alone, Dublin remains firmly within the top 30 of the world's most internationally oriented cities (and many who seek out more of a balance between authentic local life and internationalism might argue if an "Alpha ++" ranking is desirable in the first place.)

Over 520,000 citizens now call Dublin home, with another 1.3 million residing in the greater metropolitan area. Dublin and its surrounding counties regularly rank atop the nation in terms of disposable income, and its housing is not necessarily always the most expensive in the nation - locales to the West, like Galway, have been quite competitive in recent years.   more ...

During a period spanning roughly 1995 to 2008, when the global financial crisis erupted, Ireland experienced a period of unprecedented economic growth. This was seen as being due to a convergence of different factors including a low corporate taxation rate, the local establishment of branches of major technological companies (e.g. Intel, Microsoft), and an increased capacity for production that itself was attributed to the receipt of European Union structural funds and social funds, and the clever investment of such into education.

Some will also place the emergence of the 'tiger' further back to 1990, when a job creation process began that would see the nation's employment boosted from 1.1 million to 1.9 million, and when the nation's population itself surged in accordance. Naturally, this also saw a decline in the country's 'brain drain' or emigration of skilled, more highly educated employees. Lest we attribute this purely to the benevolent intervention of the outside parties mentioned above, local innovations - for example, the budget airline Ryanair - helped to overturn state monopolies on certain industries.   more ...