The economic boom in Ireland in the mid-1990s allowed Iarnród Éireann to begin significant investment in the infrastructure of the railways, which began with an order for 32 brand new express locomotives from GM-EMD.

To allow clearance tests and driver training to commence in advance of the delivery of the main order of 201s, it was decided to transport the first locomotive, number 201, to Dublin by air.

The authors of Jane's Train Recognition Guide noted that IÉ had had problems with engine fires and bogie cracks.

The Enterprise is a cross-border passenger service between Dublin and Belfast operated by Iarnród Éireann and Northern Ireland Railways.

In addition, Iarnród Éireann introduced four former Mark 3 generator vans, in September 2012, to operate this route, in a bid to improve reliability of the service and reduce maintenance costs.

As part of Iarnród Éireann's logo change, all InterCity 201's carry the new Iarnród Éireann logo, which includes the Irish flag, and for operational and safety reasons they do not operate cross border services, so a common colour scheme was adopted.

This was due to the withdrawal of the Mark 3 fleet and their replacement with 22000 Class DMUs on the vast majority of passenger services.

In 2010 Iarnród Éireann planned to store some of its remaining push-pull capable Mark 3 coaches,[11] which could potentially have been used with 201 Class locomotives to enhance Enterprise's service.

In October 2016 Iarnród Éireann expressed an interest in seeking solutions to re-power most of the fleet during a mid-life refurbishment.

In July 2017, 230 received some bodywork repairs [16] after it suffered significant damage, due to a fire in the HEP system[17] in 2013.

In the late 1990s, Model Irish Railways produced a resin bodyshell kit with nameplates, numbering, brass grills and the standard yellow / black livery line transfers.

[19] In 2011 Murphy Models launched a completely new version of the 201, with all wheel drive, centre can motor and preinstalled speaker.

The 201 Class has also been released in virtual form as a player driveable locomotive in the Microsoft Train Simulator add-on, "Irish Enterprise North", by Making Tracks,[21] and for OpenBVE by Celtic Trainsim.