Economy in the 1950s
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Protectionism – imposing tariffs on imports
Irish industry was inefficient
Imports cost more than exports – trade defecit
Unemployment increased
50,000 people emigrated every year during
1950s
The Lemass Years
1959-66
• Donough O’Malley
• Jack Lynch
The First Programme for Economic
Expansion
Aim: To attract foreign industry into Ireland
How?
• By offering them grants to set up here
• No tax on profits
• Providing the facilities needed by building
industrial estates
• To give grants to Irish firms
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Results – 1960s boom
• Many American, Japanese and British
industries came to Ireland.
• Unemployment increased
• Emigration decreased
• The population increased for the first time
since the Famine
Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement,
1965
• Removed all tariffs on Irish industrial exports
• Gradually removed tariffs on British imports
Result:
Between 1960-68 over 600 firms set up in
Iteland
Free Education
Donough O’Malley
• Free secondary education
for all children
• Free school transport for all
second level pupils
Result:
A well- educated workforce
to fill the new jobs
provided by foreign
companies
North-South Relations
• Lemass visited O’Neill in
Belfast
• Co-operation was
encouraged in tourism
and agriculture
• O’Neill returned the
gesture by visiting
Lemass in Dublin
RTÉ
• RTÉ first broadcast on
31 December 1961
• Change in attitude of
society – exposure to
British and American
cultures
• Social issues were
debated for the first
time on The Late Late
Show
The Catholic Church
• In the early 1960s the
Catholic Church had a
powerful influence over
Irish society
Vatican Council 1958:
• The debate within the
Church encouraged
ordinary Catholics to
question the teachings of
the church
Pope John XXIII