ABSTRACT
In retrospect, some of Ireland's brushes with the reality, rather than the concept, of European integration may well be viewed as somewhat disappointing, especially when considering the first two decades of post-war history. However, a judgment which perceives this process in such a sceptical light still has to allow for opinions to be tempered by the many subsequent positive developments. Of course, initially negative results should not have been unexpected because, after all, this particular country remains a small, historically-hindered, semiperipheral power lacking in any major natural resources or strategic importance. Indeed, when Ireland's application for full EEC membership is examined through any reflective political prism - partition or emigration, neutrality or nationalism - it only leads to a conclusion that the government consciously and deliberately changed its foreign policy emphasis away from political considerations to economic ones between the years 1957 to 1966. Ireland embarked upon this economic odyssey primarily in order to emerge from a lesser-developed status, not necessarily in itself a disagreeable transition. Certainly, the country which Lemass left behind after his resignation was a totally different one to that which he had inherited. It is evident that by the mid-1960s Ireland enjoyed an enhanced liberal democracy with an open economy emphasising industrial development ahead of agriculture; it possessed a regenerated political elite which underscored a shift away from civil war politics to more modem preoccupations and it was experiencing a social reawakening that was being encouraged by both Anglo-American and European influences. Although in many respects structurally weak, it had modernised radically.
