Ireland is the poster child for how a small independent nation that speaks English on the periphery of the EU can propser.

"Ireland is currently fourth on the UN's Human Development Index (HDI) ranking, while the UK is at 14th. One component of those HDI rankings is real gross national income (GNI) per capita. ... On this measure, Ireland's income per head at $53,754 (€45,736) is 37 per cent higher than the UK's at $39,116 (€33,279)." David McWilliams (25 Sep 2018)