During the past decade, Ireland has had its share of political and economic challenges. When the financial collapse hit Europe after radiating across the world from the United States, Ireland was particularly hard hit. So troubled was it in fact that the ‘I’ that didn’t stand for ‘Italy’ in the unflattering acronym ‘PIGS’ — the term that referenced the hardest hits economies within the eurozone. No, it referred to the Emerald Isle.
Where the other countries—Portugal, Greece and Spain—reeled from the shock for the better part of the last ten years, Ireland was relatively quick back in the proverbial saddle. Thanks in part to some clever economic reforms Ireland’s recovery has been hailed through the European Union as a perfect success story.
A great deal of that success has come from Ireland’s digital economy. In recent years Ireland has become a hub for the major players of the online world. Although Ireland has plenty of homegrown electronic talent, manifested by a torrent of Irish digital start-ups, the country has also been attractive to Silicon Valley giants wanting or needing a foothold in the European Union. Companies like eBay, Twitter, Uber, PayPal, and Yahoo have made Ireland their home from home.
It’s almost impossible to say whether the digital industries are thriving because of major companies having headquarters in Ireland or if they relocated because of an already thriving economy. What is known, however, is that Ireland is attracting digital enteprises at an unprecedented rate.
The gaming industry is one of those sectors that has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Gamedevelopers.ie is a website that has been around since 2003, though was revamped in 2014. The organisation seeks to provide support to the scores of Irish game developers and acts as a chronicler for the industry with an interactive map of Irish game history. The game industry was valued at €206m in 2014. Industry guru, Irish native, and gamedevelopers.ie associate Jamie McCormick recently released an estimate that in 2016 the industry grew to just over €243m, by about 5%. With Irish game developers becoming more and more popular, the growth trend is expected to continue.
It’s not only button-bashers and strategy games that are making their presence felt in the economy but also online gambling. Gavin Kelleher of Irish stockbroking firm Goodbody estimates the gambling industry in Ireland to be worth €1.1bn annually, with online gaming contributing some €220m – though he stresses the online numbers are not easy to quantify. The Irish Poker Open is the world’s second longest Texas Hold ‘em tournament and the longest running in Europe. Slotting into the Irish poker tradition has been relatively easy for digital gaming companies such as 888poker. The online and mobile poker service provider is the premier online poker site in Ireland and earlier this year hosted a tournament in Dublin.
Culturally, Ireland has long been known for a love of leisure pursuits, be it pubs, song and dance or, increasingly, video games. Although Ireland has yet to have a major breakthrough game like Finland’s Angry Birds—which in 2013 pulled in some $2.5m every day—that would spotlight Ireland internationally, with nearly 200 game developers in the country it doesn’t seem like a long wait is in store before the industry truly explodes.