Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/252319 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
QUCEH Working Paper Series No. 22-05
Publisher: 
Queen's University Centre for Economic History (QUCEH), Belfast
Abstract: 
We apply insights from the political economy of secession to analyse the early years of the Irish Free State (IFS). The IFS was fortuitous in a debt settlement that enabled it to begin its existence debt free, whilst also receiving financial assistance to quell civil unrest. Yet the IFS was unable to continue to provide the welfare spending inherited from the old regime thereby exacerbating inequality. The IFS also maintained a sterling peg, which led to a milder experience of the depression era. Ultimately however, the benefits of independence were not forthcoming in the early years of the IFS.
Subjects: 
Ireland
economic history
independence
secession
JEL: 
N14
N44
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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