“I remember Dublin in the Rare Auld Times,” sang the Dublin City Ramblers in their 1977 song and some graffiti on a mailbox near our apartments. For those practicing business in Ireland today, when even the 70s represents a time radically different from the present, you too should (learn and then) remember some amount about the nation’s past. 

Keeping Terminology Straight:

Is a Unionist a fellow like James Larkin, who helped to lead the Dublin lockout in 1913 in efforts to organize the common laborers of the city? No: it refers to the “I’m backing Britain” faction of Irish people, often the Protestant descendants of British transplants themselves. Likewise, orange is the Protestant color of the flag (Prorangstant), leaving green for the Catholics and white for peace. Perhaps most importantly, (the island of) Ireland is not the Republic of Ireland, nor is it the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Blundering through these subtle differences will damage your brand on the global stage, so accuracy (acquired through history) is valued. Sometimes, in more politically contentious areas such as Ukraine, you must offend someone by recognizing a given place’s sovereignty/dependence/lack of jurisdiction, but it is usually not so volatile a topic today in most lands. Contrary to my expectations, bilingual signs were even more infrequent than I expected, so at least Irish (another confusion: not often called Gaelic here) terminology need not be a major concern.

Avoiding Colonizing Tendencies:

When Catholic St. Patrick landed upon this little island in 432, he had no intention of fitting in with the Celtics already there. Since that time, a slew of invaders have tried to impose their own will upon the Irish people. The Vikings, the Normans, and the English have arrived with violence and notions of cultural superiority on their mind. On the balance, this approach led to little love between the peoples of the world. Even renting an apartment in Howth (a fun place to see and learn about) could be constituted as invasive gentrification, but awareness of past struggles can make you and your business better entities. Throughout history, businesses large and small have often been a force for evil and oppression, like the East India Company, but there are others ways of operating commercially. 

Anticipating Future Challenges: 

Historical knowledge can help a business anticipate future challenges. Consider BREXIT, for instance. No nation and hardly any multinational business could avoid grappling with some of the fallout from this momentous referendum, let alone a country as closely tied to both the United Kingdom and the European Union as Ireland. Well before the divorce officially concluded, the business-savvy operators of ferries responded by increasing the number of direct rides from Dublin to places on the EU mainland such as Bilbao, Spain and Cherbourg, France. The victory of Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland could be another such challenge/opportunity, so act fast and make lots of money, be it with commemorative pins or corporate mergers.