One key dimension of this opening up is of course trade: exports as a percentage of GDP grew from 24 per cent in 1960 to an astonishing 101.5 per cent in 2011 (as forecast), placing Ireland in a very select league of countries (Malaysia and Singapore being the other ones of significance) for which exports exceed GDP. The pattern of exports also shifted.
Predominantly agricultural in the 1950s, today (while agriculture and agribusiness-based exports are far from negligible) exports are dominated by manufactures and services. The shift to globalization was accompanied eventually by a rapid and more or less complete convergence in living standards to the highest levels of Western Europe.