Closest to AL,CN,LA in total GDP.
Ireland GDP (2007)
IMF: $261 billion
World Bank: $255 billion
According to wiki, which seems to be sourcing the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, the figures for the states you cite are:
Connecticut: $216 billion
Louisiana: $216 billion
Alabama: $166 billion
But Minnesota ($255 billion) and Maryland ($269 billion) are much closer to the Irish figures. Wiki gave me $188 billion for Ireland. link
My apologies. I've always heard the south is full of Scots-Irish and just went with that assumption.
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The South (or, rather, southern Appalachia) is full of Scots-Irish. But Scots-Irish are from Northern Ireland, not Ireland, and aren't included in Irish under most definitions.