ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book argues that a wide consensus exists about the Northern Ireland economy being beset with many problems. It argues that creating a united Ireland anytime in the near future through some type of constitutional settlement would bring economic calamity, not to mention grievous political instability. The book develops the case for an incremental, yet decisive programme to renew the Northern Ireland economy. It assesses a recent analysis of the Northern Ireland economy that argues for an overhauling of the regional system of human capital development. The book explores a sequence of economic strategies have sought, largely unsuccessfully, to engineer a traverse in the region from low to high productivity economic activity. It describes the simultaneous onset of the ‘Troubles’ and deindustrialization during the 1970s slowed to a trickle flows of inward investment into the region.
