1960s Ireland

• Protectionism


  High tariffs on goods coming into Ireland to protect Irish businesses from foreign competition
• Protectionism


  Creates high unemployment
• High rates of emigration

  Lead to rural depopulation, or young people left were in areas to find work and increasingly only older people remained
• 1966 Minister for education Donagh O'Malley's reforms


  1. Free schooling up to the Intermediate cert

  2. Free transport for students to school

  3. Grants to build more schools

  4. Regional Technical Colleges were opened
• The impact of these reforms was huge, the number sitting the leaving cert rose from around 9000 in 1961 two 24,000 in 1972. The practice of Irish children leaving education after primary school was ended by the early 1970s.
• Vatican II


  In 1962 Pope John XXIII reformed the Catholic Church
• Reforms of Vatican II

  1. Mass was to be said in the vernacular instead of in Latin and the priest would face the congregation

  2. The Bible was to be published in the vernacular, people were encouraged to read it themselves and all church teachings were to come from the Bible

  3. Ecumenism: sort more understanding and cooperation between the various different Christian Churches around the world
• After Vatican II


  More people began to question the teachings and the authority of the church. This would begin the gradual lessening of its influence on Irish society.
• RTE


  Launched on the 31st December 1961 and by the 1970s more than 50% of homes in the country had a TV and most received only the one RTE channel
• People saw shows from the US in the UK

  They could compare their lives to other peoples and ask why Ireland was so different
• The Late Late Show


  Regularly debated controversial topics such as religion, women's rights, homosexuality etc. and over time helped to shift society's attitudes on these topics
• The Late Late Show

  Challenging the Powerful: people saw political leaders, senior Catholic Bishops and other important people in authority being openly challenged for the first time and having to defend their actions and answer questions
• First Program for Economic Expansion


  • Free trade: reduce tariffs on imports to encourage trade and reduce prices
  • Encourage foreign investment: taxes were reduced on foreign companies that set up in Ireland and they were given grants to create jobs
  • Grants to businesses and farmers
• The economy grew at 4% per year (double its target bracket) Unemployment had fallen by a third and emigration fell.
• Sean Lemass


  Born in Dublin in 1899, fought in the 1916 rising and war of independence. And was one of the founding members of Fianna Fail in 1926
• T.K. Whitaker


  Secretary general of the Department of Finance introduced the First Program for Economic Expansion in 1959