Ireland: Past and Present - Ireland 2014 - page 661

happened when Gerry Adams, leader of the ultra-Nationalist Sinn Fein party, sat down
across a table from Reverend Ian Paisley, head of the ultra-Unionist DUP party. It was
their first face-to-face meeting. Also in 2007, London returned control of Northern Ireland
to the popularly elected Northern Ireland Assembly. Perhaps most important of all, after
almost 40 years, the British Army withdrew 90 percent of its forces from Northern Ireland
that summer. In 2010, the long-awaited Saville Report—the result of a 12-year investig-
ation by the British government—found that the Bloody Sunday shootings were unjusti-
fied, and the victims legally innocent.
Now it's up to Northern Ireland to keep the peace. The 1998 peace accord gives North-
ern Ireland the freedom to leave the UK if ever the majority of the population approves a
referendum to do so. At the same time, the Republic of Ireland withdrew its constitution-
al claim to the entire island of Ireland. Northern Ireland now has limited autonomy from
London, with its own democratically elected, power-sharing government. It will be up to
this body to untie this stubborn Gordian knot.
Great Britain is also trying to mend its relationship with the Republic. In 2011, Queen
Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since it broke
away in 1921 (she has been to the North numerous times). The Queen took the gutsy step
of visiting Dublin's Croke Park stadium, where British Black and Tan troops massacred
14 people at a 1921 Gaelic football match (see sidebar on here ) . She also visited Dublin's
Garden of Remembrance, a quiet urban plot devoted to the 1916 Easter Uprising. In 2012,
she took it a step further by shaking hands with ex-IRA leader and current Deputy First
Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness. These acts of reconciliation, though
controversial and dramatic, were another step toward building an amicable relationship
between the two countries.
Today, both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have reason to be optimistic
about the future. Inspite ofthe current recession, their economic growth through the 1990s
and 2000s was impressive, and political and cultural problems have diminished.
The formerly isolated island is welcoming tourists with open arms and reaching out to
the rest of the globe. In 1999, the number of tourists visiting Ireland topped the six million
mark, exceeding for the first time the native population of the island. And visitors return-
ing to Ireland are amazed at the country's transformation (although there can still be some
tense areas in the North—as in all big cities).
DuringitsCelticTigereconomicboom,theIrishimportedlaborandsurpassedtheEng-
lish in per-capita income—both for the first time ever. Starting in 1980, when Apple set
up its European headquarters here, streams of multinational and US corporations opened
offices in Ireland. Ireland has one of the youngest populations in Europe. And those young
Irish, beneficiaries of one of Europe's best education systems, provide these corporations
with a highly skilled workforce. Ireland's pharmaceutical, chemical, and software indus-