Journal of European Integration History – Revue d'histoire de l'

The Diplomacy of ‘dignified calm’ 83Historical Background – From Protectionism toward Free TradeIreland's decision to apply for full membership of the European Economic Community(EEC) on 31 July 1961 was symbolic of the significant domestic politicalvictory which the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, and a section of the civil service hadenjoyed over the traditionalists in the ruling Fianna Fáil party and in the civil service.The latter were still wedded to the idea of protectionism – a policy which hadbeen pursued since Éamon de Valera first came to power in 1932. Up to the latter'sretirement from politics in 1959 at the age of 77, Fianna Fáil had been in office fortwenty one of those twenty seven years. De Valera's departure did not so much precipitatethe change from protectionism to free trade as facilitate the acceleration ofa process which had been initiated by the untenable nature of the status quo. Thedecade of the 1950s was characterised in Ireland by high unemployment and massemigration. 8 In 1957, the worst year of emigration during the decade, the net lossof population was 54,000 people. The total for the decade, 1951 to 1961, was a lossof 400,000 people. By 1961, the population had declined to 2.8 million, a drop offive per cent on the figure at the foundation of the state in 1922. At its peak, therewere 78,000 out of work in 1957. 9Ireland was wholly dependent on the British market with 81 per cent of herexports going there in 1956.[That figure had dropped to 66 pc in 1969.] The country'sdismal economic record stands in contrast to the relative prosperity in neighbouringBritain, in Scandinavia and in the countries of the Six.The orthodoxies of protectionism had become deeply entrenched in the civilservice, particularly in the upper echelons of the Department of Industry and Commerce,of which – paradoxically – Seán Lemass was minister until his appointmentas Taoiseach in 1959. 10 But, as Brian Girvin has shown, all the major departmentswere slow to move away from the comfort of the old orthodoxies. Confronted bythe emergence of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), the dilemma of the Irishcivil servants and politicians was evident and they continued to opt for “the primacyof traditional policy”. 11 The more heterodox among the civil servants hadstruck a‘damned if we do and damned if we don't’ policy stance. But that was topostpone the inevitable.Outside government circles, between 1957 and 1959, influential economistslike Professor Patrick Lynch, University College Dublin and W.J. Louden Ryan,Trinity College Dublin, had signalled the need for a change in policy. In the intimateworld of Dublin's minuscule policy-making elite, the thinking in academic,8. D. KEOGH, Twentieth Century Ireland – Nation and State, Dublin 1994, pp. 64-242.9. See B. WALSH, “Economic Growth and Development, 1945-70”, in J. LEE (ed.), Ireland 1945-1970, Dublin 1979, pp. 28-29.10. For general background to the history of that department, see M. E. DALY, Industrial Developmentand Irish National Identity, 1922-1939, Dublin 1992. For one of the best overviews of the periodsee, B. GIRVIN, Between Two Worlds – Politics and Economy in Independent Ireland, Dublin 1989,pp. 169-201; See also J. LEE, Ireland 1912-1985 – Politics and Society, Cambridge 1989, pp. 329-410.11. B. GIRVIN, Between Two Worlds, pp. 190-192.