Preventing the Future: Why was Ireland So Poor for So Long?From the mid-thirties to 1960, independent Ireland endured economic stagnation and a period of intense cultural and psychological repression. External circumstances - the depression of the thirties, World War II and post-war trade barriers which discouraged exports - accounted for only part of the problem. This book argues that the situation was aggravated by internal circumstances: especially the failure to extend higher and technical education to larger sections of the population. This failure was due to political stalemates in a small country; derived in particular from the power of the Catholic Church, the strength of the small-farm community, the ideological wish to preserve an older society and, later, gerontocratic tendencies in the social and political elites. mass education resulted in large numbers of young people being denied preparation for life in the modern world and, arguably, denied Ireland a sufficient supply of trained labour and educated citizens. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
A Logic of Collective Action | 10 |
POLITICS AND DEVELOPMENT IN IRELAND | 20 |
Copyright | |
23 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
agriculture American argued authoritarian Biever bishops Britain British capital Catholic Church Catholicism century civil servants Clann na Poblachta clergy clerical commented commonly Dáil democratic Department developmentalist Eamon de Valera early ecclesiastical economic development educational system effect electoral elites emigration Europe European farmers favour Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil government Finance Fine Gael Furthermore Gael Gaelic Garvin Gill & Macmillan growth Horgan Ibid idea ideological independent Ireland industry Institute intellectual Inter-Party government interest Irish Catholic Irish democracy Irish economic Irish education Irish government Irish language Irish political Irish society John John Charles McQuaid labour later leaders London MacBride MacEntee McGilligan McQuaid Minister modern modernisation nationalist Noel Browne organisations party period political culture politicians popular post-war Press priests religious Republic of Ireland republican revolutionary rural schools Sean Lemass Sean MacEntee seems seen Sinn Féin social Taoiseach technical traditional University College Dublin wrote young