County Leitrim
Ireland's least populous county (35,000) where famine depopulation created emptiness that now attracts remote workers and artists seeking affordable rural life.
County Leitrim ranks as Ireland's least populous county—approximately 35,000 residents across landscape that development largely bypassed. This emptiness resulted from famine emigration and subsequent decline; the county lost more population proportionally than any other.
The irony: Leitrim's underdevelopment now attracts those seeking affordable rural life. Remote workers, artists, and retirees find housing costs accessible when Dublin prices exclude them. This in-migration reverses decades of decline, though numbers remain modest.
Shannon Erne Waterway connects river systems, creating cruising tourism. The Organic Centre near Rossinver promotes sustainable agriculture. These niche developments demonstrate alternative development paths beyond industrial attraction.
Leitrim's challenge: maintaining services for sparse population while attracting new residents seeking precisely the underdevelopment that limited services reflect. The county experiments with rural sustainability models that crowded counties cannot explore.