“There are quite a few pockets of quants in Ireland,” says Joanne Cohen, a consultant at London-based recruitment firm Huxley Associates. “They’re mostly at hedge funds and quantitative fund managers, but a few are also in software houses.”

At least two Irish-based fund managers are looking for quantitative equity analysts.

Meanwhile, hedge fund group Susquehanna International is looking for a quant-focused junior trader for its Dublin-based graduate training programme. And First Derivatives, a County Down-based software developer in Northern Ireland, is looking for PhDs to join its team.

Padraig McGoldrick, head of HR at First Derivatives, says the company already employs programming staff from the likes of Norway, Greece, Romania and Poland, and is always open to applications from people with the right mathematical background: “We have an ongoing recruitment process.”

Cohen says plenty of Ireland’s quants come from the country itself, with Trinity College Dublin a good source of mathematical expertise. “Considering the population of Ireland, it seems to produce a disproportionate number of quants,” she muses.

As ever, pay doesn’t quite match what’s on offer in London. But it’s not too far off either. Cohen says a PhD moving into a quant role in the City can command a starting package of 50,000 to 60,000. In Dublin it’s more like €70,000 to €80,000 (48,000 to 55,000) .