ABSTRACT
Lamme and Miller Russell's identification of a desire or need to raise funds being a fundamental element in the development of propaganda rings true for the Free State. In the revolutionary period before the founding of the Free State, nationalists recognised that a propaganda campaign against Britain could help achieve international recognition for a republic. Free State propaganda expenditure was sometimes hidden within official budgets, as though indicative of uncertainty whether it was a wholesome practice, akin to the unofficial status of official British propaganda. Unionist propaganda actively pursued the mobilisation of Ulster and British society, even at the cost of unrest and dissidence, with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF's) status as a private army a significant threat to Westminster. The reluctance to fund propaganda, whether initiated by state officials or commercial enterprises, represented a missed opportunity to communicate strategically at home and overseas; worse, it retarded economic and social development.
