ABSTRACT
The island of Ireland is a mass of contradictions.' The identities divergently championed in its distinct administrative halves - Ireland and Northern Ireland - only demonstrate the extremely complex nature of the relationships that exist in both countries, between culture and politics, economy and society, as well as the numerous nefarious associations that are perpetuated by linking the past to the present. This chapter concentrates on the singularity of just one of those states in the first two decades following the conclusion of the Second World War, by exploring its experiences as an island-nation and examining an enduring relationship with its UK neighbour, by investigating the economic attractions Europe held and surveying its connections with the wider world. Much of the information that is presented here, however, is only a mirror-image of that which pertains to the aforementioned north-eastern section of the island. Thus, Ireland has to be investigated at a number of different levels - its politics, its inconsistencies, its nationalism, its geography - in order to understand the idiosyncratic disposition which it brought to bear upon its relations with the EEC in the years between 1957 and 1966. Essentially, this short first chapter therefore acts as a passage into the heart of this text.
