Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
pharmaceutical firms to locate here, taking advantage of this young, well-educated labor
force. And for the first time, Ireland has become a destination for immigrants, who've
come mostly from the Third World and the newer EU nations. Eastern Europeans (espe-
cially Poles) come in search of higher pay...a reversal from the days when many Irish fled
to start new lives abroad.
As time passes, relations between Ireland and her former colonial master Britain are
starting to heal. In May of 2011, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to
visit the Republic of Ireland since its 1921 split from the United Kingdom, which was un-
der her grandfather's reign at the time. Her four-night visit (to Dublin, Cashel, and Cork)
unexpectedly charmedtheIrishpeopleanddidmuchtorepairoldwoundsbetweenthetwo
countries, which are now, in the words of the Queen, “equal partners and good neighbors.”
