America? Any of the Carribbean countries? Tuvalu? I take your point , though. I don't agree with the turning Protestant thing, but the Economic War and seceding from the Commonwealth really fucked us up.
I read a good essay somewhere lately that compared Ireland to a corrupt African state (Zaire, Angola, the Congo, Sudan, Niger to name a few). The jist of it was - in most post-colonial societies, the foreign ruling class leaves or is ousted, but then a new native ruling class moves in, to continue the exploitation of its own people in the manner of the previous rulers.
And the absolute best example of why it would have been better to remain a Dominion? Just drive from Dundalk to Newry
That's not to say we can't, or shouldn't, work with what we have, by the way.