Sterling Stuff

As pointed out by the grandson of Henry McDevitt, Fianna Fáil TD for Donegal East from 1938 to 1943, more than a third of people in the Irish Republic want to revert to sterling, with support highest among the young and rising to 43 per cent among Sinn Féin supporters.

They really only gave it up in 1979, prior to which the value of the punt was fixed at whatever happened to be that of the pound sterling. Long after that, their money was run up at the Royal Mint (their euros may still be), with coinage identical to that of Britain in shape, size and colour, such that British coins could have been and were passed routinely in the 26 Counties. And the state comprised of those counties was a lot more independent before 1979 than it is now.