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Ireland's not in the Schengen area btw.

Oh yes true you are right. They aren't even seen as "European" much from the continental perspective and are usually out of visibility from the local economic as well as cultural standpoint. Ireland as we see it from here is "a place where American corporations evade taxes and because of insane amounts of money they bring in, they pretty much rule there", correct me if i'm wrong. It has a lot more connectivity - cultural, economic, and travel-wise - with USA and UK than with EU it is a part of.

Er what?? You're so far off base. I've lived in the Czech republic for 6 years, Finland for 3 years before that. I'm catholic and my family are Spanish on one side. On the other, well let's say if I was American I would call myself Irish American but I'm not Irish in fact. Ireland has its own culture and of course there's not the continuity with other EU states (Bavarian culture bleeds into Bohemian, the Nordic countries have their shared history, etc). You might argue that they have some cultural similarities with the Brits (but Irish people I know don't think much of that idea). The phenomenon you mention, US corporations using/abusing Irish tax law, is an assault on Irish people and culture not caused by them.

To point to a specific example, Spain and Ireland recognised Palestine in a joint statement.

Yeah Ireland is very EU.

One of the reasons it isn't in schengen is it has free travel with the UK. You don't even need ID to cross the border and can stay indefinitely if an Irish/UK citizen.

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