72 Years Of The Republic Of Ireland

This fantastic tweet by Old Ireland In Colour reminded me it's 72 years since The Republic Of Ireland Act came into force. My dad was born in 1947, so even he's older than my birth country.

It's not all been plain sailing. Northern Ireland is - once again - in focus for all the wrong reasons. Not for the first time, residents of the six counties have been overlooked and marginalized.

But we've made a lot of progress, too. The Republic Of Ireland is an EU member, enjoys booming economic growth (pandemic aside), and recovered well from the effects of a global financial crisis of our own doing. Our nouveau riche-ness got the better of us, now we're (mostly) the better for it.

We have a more diverse society than ever before. Again, it's far from perfect - sadly racism is still a global challenge - but we're still rightfully known as the Land of a Thousand Welcomes. Hopefully, when this pandemic is over, we'll welcome many thousands - hopefully millions - more.

The Republic Of Ireland is where I was born, grew up, and lived the vast majority of my life. I'm proud to be Irish, and proud of what our little country has achieved. The Ireland of the 1980s was so, so different to the Ireland of today.