ABSTRACT
Modernization can of course be descriptive and normative; as a form of social change it was seen by some in Irish society as a deleterious transformation to be avoided at costs. Such change eroded the fundamental conception of community and values that the Irish chose in law and practice for them. The Irish economy in the 1950s was predominantly agricultural and essentially unchanged since the 1930s. The economic growth rate for the years 1922 to 1938 has been estimated at 1.2 percent per year, at 0 percent during the war years, and at only 1.8 percent after the war. The key was to generate the production of goods for export; the development would come from incentives that would bring foreign capital to Irish industry. The strategy, according to political scientist Brigid Laffan, was part of a learning process for Irish decision makers in managing internationalization. The Irish educational system had remained essentially unchanged since the end of the nineteenth century.
