유럽통합의 진전에 따른 아일랜드 사회의 변화와 적응 - 니나(Nenagh) 지방의 사례를 중심으로

Abstract

Republic of Ireland joined the European Union in 1973. The EU membership has brought about radical changes in almost all aspects of life as the process of the European integration progressed over the years. This study examines such changes and the Irish responses to them focusing on Irish economic structure.

Agriculture is the sector where the impacts of the European integration has manifested themselves in the most direct and profound way. In a word, the joining of the EU and receiving the various benefits of the Common Agricultural Policy(CAP) was a decisive factor in the modernization of Irish agriculture. Although there exists the problem of Irish small farmers who have been the losers in this modernization process, various EU structural policies and the direct subsidy schemes introduced as a result of the 1992 CAP reform have been functioning as a buffer against rapid demise of Irish small farmers.

To join the EU was a move in line with the externally oriented economic development and industrialization strategy which Ireland has pursued since the late 1950s. The EU membership has been an important factor for the rapid Irish industrial development. Europe has become the largest source of foreign capital as well as the biggest market for Irish industrial products, thereby rendering Ireland to be able to overcome their traditional dependence on Britain. On the other hand, however, the EU membership has contributed to the deepening of the foreign dependence of Irish industrial sectors.

The overall Irish economic development for the last three decades which owes a great deal to the progress of the European integration and especially the extremely high economic growth rate during the 1990s, as well as the various progresses in sociocultural aspects of Irish life which the EU membership have brought about, have made the great majority of contemporary Irish people pro-European. They can now say with confidence, "We are European and Irish at the same time."