By Business & Finance 
John Walsh, Managing Editor of Quartet Books, reflects on the relationship between Ireland and the United States.
Note: This piece was originally published in Business & Finance annual magazine 2025/26, vol. 62, available to read, with compliments, here.
By John Walsh
In 2000, Mary Harney, the then-Tanaiste, postulated that “Ireland would always be spiritually closer to Boston than Berlin.” At the time, this pithy observation neatly encapsulated the position of successive Irish governments.
Ireland may have been a member of the European Union, but the country’s foreign policy and economic framework were heavily oriented towards the US.
There is a theory in international relations that the soft power wielded by a small country is directly proportionate to its access to the White House and Capitol Hill. By this measure, Ireland has been ranked as one of the most powerful small countries in the world over the past couple of decades.
Since the early 1960s, the sitting Taoiseach has been granted a private audience with the US President on St Patrick’s Day, while the Irish-American caucus in the Houses of Congress has become increasingly influential.
The political might of Irish America has been used to great effect since the 1980s. Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, bitterly complained that she would not have signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985 if there had not been pressure applied by the Reagan Administration.
The Good Friday Agreement would not have been possible without the unstinting support of President Bill Clinton and prominent Irish-Americans, such as Senator George Mitchell, who chaired the talks that paved the way for the historic peace accord.
Irish America was once again called into action following the Brexit referendum in 2016. The UK’s withdrawal from the EU threatened to undermine the complex institutional architecture of the Good Friday Agreement. However, Congressmen Richard Neal and Brendan Boyle, among many others, spearheaded a US intervention that successfully prevented a hard border from re-emerging on the island of Ireland.
But the US-Ireland relationship was not just about political influence; economic ties have flourished over the past four decades.
One of President Clinton’s first policy initiatives was to enable US multinationals to expand their international footprints. The move coincided with radical reforms in the Irish economy, such as a highly competitive corporate tax regime.
During the 1990s, Ireland attracted more US investment per capita than any other country in the world. The decision to invest in Ireland was mostly based on hard-nosed business reasons, but the traditional ties between the two countries also played an important role.
Legend has it that when a major US investment bank was looking for its European headquarters, Dublin and St Gallen in Switzerland made the final shortlist. The CEO of the bank, who had a distinctly Irish surname, told the investment committee that he would respect their decision. But just as he left the room, he reminded them that there were not too many surnames in the St Gallen telephone directory that matched his own.
Since the 1990s, US multinational investment has been the bedrock of Irish economic growth. Ireland is the EU headquarters for most of the big US pharma and high-tech multinationals. Roughly 970 US companies directly employ 211,000 people across the State and indirectly support a further 168,000 jobs.
And it is not just a one-way street. Ireland is the sixth-largest investor in the US. Approximately 203,000 people are employed in the US by Irish companies.
However, the next chapter in US-Ireland relations is probably more uncertain now than at any time in the past few decades. Indeed, it is unlikely that any Irish politician would make the same statement of realpolitik as Mary Harney did twenty-five years ago.
Donald Trump, the US president, has embraced an ‘America First’ agenda that has potentially significant consequences for Ireland.
There is a view that Irish people traditionally viewed US politics almost exclusively through the prism of the Democratic Party. Ronald Reagan was the rare exception of a Republican President receiving red carpet treatment on a visit to Ireland.
Indeed, traditionally, Irish Americans voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party. But this calculus is changing. Polling over the past decade shows that an increasing number of Irish Americans are embracing Trump’s MAGA movement.
In other words, Irish America, which has been a bulwark for Irish interests in the past, could threaten future prosperity.
The Trump administration is openly hostile to the EU, and it has on a number of occasions tried to undermine the bloc. The US President has singled out Ireland, and in particular, the concentration of US pharma companies in this country. He has pledged to introduce policies that would force pharma companies to reshore their businesses to the US.
So far, actual legislation introduced by the Trump administration has not materially impacted the Irish economy. Tariffs on EU goods were initially pledged at up to 50% but so far they have averaged 15%.
The biggest challenge facing the Government is coming up with a diplomatic approach that can adapt effectively to the new direction in US politics. So far, the signs are encouraging, and President Trump remains well disposed to Ireland.
Also, the most recent survey conducted by the Irish American Chamber of Commerce shows that US multinationals retain a very positive impression of Ireland. But the government must ensure Ireland remains an attractive place to invest, and that means following through on the ambitious €200bn National Development Plan over the next decade, which includes upgrades to the energy grid and other vital infrastructure projects.
In the past, Irish-American relations were forged mainly through deep political ties. These ties will endure, but over time they will inevitably weaken. The US is in a period of dynamic demographic change, and it has been many decades since the last wave of migration to the US.
In the future, relations will adapt to changing circumstances. Entrepreneurs such as John and Patrick Collison have built a tech company, Stripe, which has a market capitalisation of over $100bn in the US. They are among a wave of Irish entrepreneurs making a mark in the US.
The US-Ireland business community could replace the political axis as the dominant lynchpin of future relations.
