[mousquet]

Idk whether the Irish are always as friendly as legend has it.
They often are great party people when they show up here in France, and I think they like us in general.
But their relation to the English might have always been something else.
That's none of our business anyway.

I'm just envious when thinking of their economy. People say they were stuck in difficulties up to the 1980s or 90s, but watch these figures today.

2018 Ireland's GDP per capita: $78,785 (IMF, ranked 5th)
USA: 62,606 (10th)
Canada: 49,651 (21st)
France: 45,775 (25th)

2017 Ireland's human development index: 0.938 (UN, ranked 4th)
Canada: 0.926 (12th)
USA: 0.924 (13th, though they don't perform so well once inequality taken into account, which is the very problem in the US)
France: 0.901 (24th)

Ahem, there's only a 20-country gap between us and them by every significant economic measure...
I find it simply amazing when they are supposed to have been much poorer than us just 30 years ago.
They've been so freaking fast. I'm actually glad about it, cause they're definitely a good people for real.

Sorry for spoiling the thread by these things, but I think it's worth noting how fine the Irish are doing today.
It's even important.