英国脱欧，这个国家居然成了最大赢家

一些英国人，或者具体来说，支持英国脱欧而且留任的英国议员并不乐于看到爱尔兰在国际舞台上的崛起以及爱尔兰和英国之间的微妙权力转移。英国保守党的一位成员嘲弄“固执的爱尔兰政府”过于担心边界问题。该党的另一位成员在去年12月建议英国政府通过经济损失，包括令人不安而且类似于19世纪大饥荒的食品短缺来胁迫爱尔兰接受对英国更有利的脱欧方案，因而广受谴责。当月，一位未具名的英国议员还对BBC专栏作家表示：“爱尔兰人真的应该清楚自己的地位。”

在投票结束两年后，脱欧决定依然备受争议。但尽管英国有多种方案，大多数人都认为有一点生死攸关，那就是英国脱欧使得爱尔兰重新统一的说法变得越发普遍，而苏格兰谋求独立的行为也仍在搅动局势。

妮娅姆·布什内尔曾任爱尔兰政府初创公司专员，现在是非盈利咨询机构TechIreland负责人。该机构位于都柏林国际化的坎贝尔街街角，周围是巴西、中国和东欧杂货店、合资韩国烤肉餐厅、菲律宾午餐店、马拉西亚小餐馆、摩洛哥咖啡店和寿司店。布什内尔相信英国“一时头脑发热”会让爱尔兰受益。她一边用勺子挖着鳄梨面包片、辣鹰嘴豆、甜菜根粉和口利左香肠做成的典型旧金山早午餐，一边说：“英国要处理的问题不光是脱欧。它处在脱欧时代中。就是没有这些麻烦事，他们的处境也不怎么样。他们是欧洲的特朗普——疯狂，而且是那种让人不安、具有时代性的疯狂。”

那些迁往都柏林、法兰克福和巴黎的公司并非一夜之间就会消失的呼叫中心、血汗工厂或者工作毫无吸引力的单位。相反，它们拥有的是打造21世纪经济力量的白领、绿领和金领工作。爱尔兰看来准备把它们全部收入囊中。还不到5英尺3英寸（约1.6米）的布什内尔说：“小就是美。它让我们保持灵活性。我们的国家无法扩大规模。但我们可以在国际上扩大规模。我们不要广度，而是要深度。这已经提高了我们在产业链上的位置。我们不再是呼叫中心。现在人们都在接我们的电话。”

如果这听起来像是战无不胜的千禧一代忘乎所以的乐观态度，那是因为情况确实如此。爱尔兰人的平均年龄为35.9岁，是欧盟最年轻的国家，和巴西、中国、卡塔尔、新加坡以及泰国等蒸蒸日上的人口群体旗鼓相当（整个欧盟的平均年龄是42.8岁，其中德国最高，为45.9岁）。曾经在英国、德国和印度担任大使的爱尔兰驻美国大使丹尼尔·马尔霍尔表示：“以前我们一直都有威望，但无论英国还是欧盟，他们总觉得我们占了别人的便宜。时代已经变了。我们变成了爱尔兰本身。我们终于有了自己的想法。”

The ascent of Ireland as a global player and the subtle shift in power between it and the U.K. isn’t going over well with some in Britain—namely, the Brexit supporters who remain in Parliament. One Conservative member derided “the obdurate Irish government” for being overly concerned with border issues. Another was widely condemned in December for suggesting that Downing Street use the threat of economic damage, including food shortages, to compel Ireland to agree to a more favorable deal for the U.K.—an uncomfortable echo of the Great Famine of the 19th century. “We simply cannot allow the Irish to treat us this way,” an unnamed member of Parliament reportedly told a BBC columnist that same month, adding: “The Irish really should know their place.”

The Brexit decision remains hotly contested more than two years after the original vote, but despite Britain’s mixed bag of opinions, most agree it’s an existential inflection: Talk of Brexit-abetted Irish reunification has gained traction, and Scotland’s own roiling independence movement continues.

Seated along the cosmopolitan corridor of Dublin’s Capel Street—amid Brazilian, Chinese, and Eastern European grocery stores; Korean barbecue joints; Filipino lunch spots; Malaysian greasy spoons; Moroccan cafés; and sushi bars—Niamh Bushnell, the Irish government’s onetime commissioner of startups who now heads up nonprofit consultancy TechIreland, believes Ireland is poised to benefit from Britain’s momentary mania. “The U.K. doesn’t just have Brexit on its plate,” she says as she digs into a downright San Franciscan brunch of avocado toast with spiced chickpea, beetroot powder, and chorizo. “It’s in the Age of Brexit. Even without this mess, they’d be in a sorry state. They are Europe’s Trump—crazy, but in an unnerving, zeitgeisty way.”

The businesses moving to Dublin, Frankfurt, and Paris are not fly-by-night call centers, sweatshops, or hubs of unattractive work. Rather, they are the white-collar, green-collar, and gold-collar jobs upon which the 21st century’s economic power is being built. Ireland seems prepared to grab them all. “Small is beautiful. It keeps us agile,” says Bushnell, herself not quite 5 feet 3 inches. “We can’t scale nationally. We can only scale internationally. Instead of going wide, we are going deep. That has sent us up the value chain. We’re not call centers anymore. People are taking our calls now.”

If it sounds like the giddy optimism of millennial invincibility, that’s because it is: With a median age of 35.9, Ireland has the youngest population in the EU, putting it on par with such booming populations as those of Brazil, China, Qatar, Singapore, and Thailand. (The EU-wide median is 42.8; Germany claims the highest median age at 45.9.) “We always had cachet but were seen as riding coattails, either of the U.K. or the EU,” says Daniel Mulhall, an Irish ambassador who has served in Britain, Germany, India, and is currently ambassador to the U.S. Times have changed. “We became our own country,” he says. “We have our own ideas at last.”