| Description : Ireland left the Commonwealth of Nations in 1949 after more
than three centuries of British rule, but the six counties of Northern Ireland remained in the United Kingdom. In 1973,
Ireland joined the European Community (EC) as part of the 'Northern Enlargement', together with Great Britain and Denmark.
In 1998, the 'Good Friday Agreement' succeeded in ending armed conflict in Northern Ireland. With the entry into force of
the Treaty of Lisbon on the 1st of December 2009, the European Community was dissolved and the European Union (EU)
became its legal successor. After difficult years, there was a strong economic recovery from 1995 to 2007, supported by EU
structural funds, which earned Ireland the nickname Celtic Tiger. In 2002, Ireland (along with 11 other eurozone countries)
adopted the euro as its currency. The world financial crisis of 2007/2008 hit Ireland particularly hard, especially as
speculative bubbles such as that in the real estate sector burst. The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU, known
as 'Brexit', which took place on the 31st of January 2020 following a referendum held in 2016, moved the EU's
external border into the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Northern Ireland in order to maintain a land border between
the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland free of controls. Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, thus
remained legally in the EU. The coin shows the logo for the 50th anniversary of EU accession, consisting of two lines of
the word "ÉIRE" (Ireland) and "eu50", with the zero of the ligatured number completed by five euro stars. At the top
is the year of accession, "1973", at the bottom the year of issue, "2023". The coin was produced without mint mark by the
Irish mint Lárionad Airgeadra an Bhainc Ceannais / Central Bank Currency Centre in Áth an Ghainimh
/ Sandyford. |
