Industrial Development and Irish National Identity, 1922-1939


Book Description

"The roots of many problems facing Ireland's economy today can be traced to the first two decades following its independence. Opening previously unexplored areas of Irish history, this is the first comprehensive study of industrial development and attitudes coward industrialization during a pivotal period, from the founding of the Irish Free State to the Anglo-Irish Trade Treaty." "As one of the first postcolonial states of the 20th century, Ireland experienced strong tensions between the independence movement and the considerable institutional and economic inertia from the past. Daly explores these tensions and how Irish nationalism, Catholicism, and British political traditions influenced economic development. She thus sheds light on the evolution of economic and social attitudes in the newly independent state." "Drawing on a wide array of primary sources not yet generally accessible, Daly examines such topics as Irish economic thinking before independence; the conservative policies of W. T. Cosgrave's government in the first five years after independence; the growing division between the two major political parties over economic policy; Fianna Fail's controversial attempts to develop an independent - and nationalistic - economic policy; the largely unsuccessful attempt to develop native industries; the development of financial institutions; the political and social implications of economic change; the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement of 1938; and comparisons with other economically emerging nations."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved







An Economic History of Ireland Since Independence


Book Description

This book provides a cogent summary of the economic history of the Irish Free State/Republic of Ireland. It takes the Irish story from the 1920s right through to the present, providing an excellent case study of one of many European states which obtained independence during and after the First World War. The book covers the transition to protectionism and import substitution between the 1930s and the 1950s and the second major transition to trade liberalisation from the 1960s. In a wider European context, the Irish experience since EEC entry in 1973 was the most extreme European example of the achievement of industrialisation through foreign direct investment. The eager adoption of successive governments in recent decades of a neo-liberal economic model, more particularly de-regulation in banking and construction, has recently led the Republic of Ireland to the most extreme economic crash of any western society since the Great Depression.




Industry and Policy in Independent Ireland, 1922-1972


Book Description

This book revisits the history of industry and industrial and economic policy in independent Ireland from the birth of the state to the eve of EEC accession. Though there were several manufacturing employers of significance, and smaller firms in operation in almost every major branch of industry, the Irish Free State was predominantly agricultural at its establishment in 1922. Industrial development was high on the nationalist agenda, as would be the case across the entire developing world in the later post-colonial era. Despite decades of protection, and a substantial increase in the size of the manufacturing sector, Ireland remained under-industrialised when it joined the European Economic Community in 1973. Over the previous decade and a half however the foundations of later convergence had been laid. Ireland was an early adopter of what would come to be known as dual-track reform. The policy of attracting outward-oriented foreign direct investment was initiated before substantial trade liberalisation began. By 1972 there had been a significant diversification in export categories and export destinations, and in the nationality of ownership of the leading manufacturing firms. Some of the most successful indigenous companies of the future were also beginning to emerge. In these and other respects the foundations of the economic progress that would be made over the course of EEC membership were already discernible, notwithstanding the post-accession collapse of most protectionist-era businesses. The analysis is supplemented by a unique firm-level database that allows for the identification of the leading manufacturing firms in operation at any stage from the early 1900s through to 1972. The database extends by more than 50 years the period for which estimates of the significance of foreign-owned industry can be provided.




Grand Opportunity


Book Description

In this groundbreaking work, Timothy McMahon reexamines the significance of the Gaelic revival in forming Ireland’s national identity. In their determination to preserve and extend the use of Irish as a spoken language and artistic medium, members of the Gaelic League profoundly influenced Irish culture and literature in the twentieth century. McMahon explores that influence by scrutinizing the ways in which society absorbed their messages, tracing the interaction between the ideas propagated by the League and the variety of meanings ordinary people attached to Ireland and to being Irish. Comparing press and police reports with census data and local directories, the author establishes the first comprehensive profile of League membership. McMahon’s ability to access both English- and Irish-language sources offers readers a rare and richly detailed analysis of primary materials. Grand Opportunity addresses questions that are central to understanding modern Irish identity and makes an indispensable contribution to the wider study of national identity formation.




Rethinking Irish History


Book Description

This book provides a critical interpretation of the construction of Irish national identity in the longer perspective of history. Drawing on recent sociological theory, the authors demonstrate how national identity was invented and codified by a nationalist intelligentsia in the late nineteenth century. The trajectory of this national identity is traced as a process of crisis and contradiction. One of the central arguments is that the negative implications of Irish national identity have never been fully explored by social science.




The Cambridge History of Ireland: Volume 4, 1880 to the Present


Book Description

This final volume in the Cambridge History of Ireland covers the period from the 1880s to the present. Based on the most recent and innovative scholarship and research, the many contributions from experts in their field offer detailed and fresh perspectives on key areas of Irish social, economic, religious, political, demographic, institutional and cultural history. By situating the Irish story, or stories - as for much of these decades two Irelands are in play - in a variety of contexts, Irish and Anglo-Irish, but also European, Atlantic and, latterly, global. The result is an insightful interpretation on the emergence and development of Ireland during these often turbulent decades. Copiously illustrated, with special features on images of the 'Troubles' and on Irish art and sculpture in the twentieth century, this volume will undoubtedly be hailed as a landmark publication by the most recent generation of historians of Ireland.




In Search of the Promised Land


Book Description

Murphy argues against the thesis of Tom Garvin and his work, Preventing the Future. In that book, Garvin argues that old culture, old ideas and the repression of the Church held Ireland's development in check through the 1940s and 1950s. Gary Murphy suggests that the Irish government and civil service leaders were in fact open to change and new ideas and this openness led them to adopt outward-looking policies.




Race in Modern Irish Literature and Culture


Book Description

This book sets out to expose through a combination of literary, cultural and historical analysis the fictive nature of Irish monoculturalism and to probe figurations of racial identity, racial difference, and foreignness in Irish culture.




Pax Economica


Book Description

The forgotten history of the liberal radicals, socialist internationalists, feminists, and Christians who envisioned free trade as the necessary prerequisite for anti-imperialism and peace Today, free trade is often associated with right-wing free marketeers. In Pax Economica, historian Marc-William Palen shows that free trade and globalisation in fact have roots in nineteenth-century left-wing politics. In this counterhistory of an idea, Palen explores how, beginning in the 1840s, left-wing globalists became the leaders of the peace and anti-imperialist movements of their age. By the early twentieth century, an unlikely alliance of liberal radicals, socialist internationalists, feminists, and Christians envisioned free trade as essential for a prosperous and peaceful world order. Of course, this vision was at odds with the era’s strong predilections for nationalism, protectionism, geopolitical conflict, and colonial expansion. Palen reveals how, for some of its most radical left-wing adherents, free trade represented a hard-nosed critique of imperialism, militarism, and war. Palen shows that the anti-imperial component of free trade was a phenomenon that came to encompass the political left wing within the British, American, Spanish, German, Dutch, Belgian, Italian, Russian, French, and Japanese empires. The left-wing vision of a “pax economica” evolved to include supranational regulation to maintain a peaceful free-trading system—which paved the way for a more liberal economic order after World War II and such institutions as the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Trade Organization. Palen’s findings upend how we think about globalisation, free trade, anti-imperialism, and peace. Rediscovering the left-wing history of globalism offers timely lessons for our own era of economic nationalism and geopolitical conflict.