Postcolonial Ireland: Rural Fundamentalism and Industrialization

The purpose of this essay is to ask, when Ireland began to industrialise in the 1960s and the 1970s why it mainly occurred in the west. This essay will discuss postcolonial Ireland (1920s-1960s). It will define rural fundamentalism and how it informed social and economic policies in Ireland, it will focus on how poverty, emigration and unemployment and how it played a key role in the eclipsing of the communities of rural Ireland This essay will discuss how the opening up of the economy and the shift in ideologies was essential to the survival of the nation. Moving on it will discuss the International Development Authority (IDA) and its role it had in promoting industrialisation in the west. It will give an explanation as to why the multinational firms chose to locate in the west rather than other regions of Ireland. The essay will focus on the social impact industrialisation had on individuals and of the communities, and it will show that when industrialisation happened in rural Ireland it was seen to be beneficial to the whole population.

According to Frankenberg (1994), Arensberg and Kimball’s description of the west of Ireland was a community that was homogenous, it was well integrated, stable and it was a harmonious entity, this was expressed through kinship and cooring, the chosen son inherited the farm thus the farm got passed down from one generation to the next. Through agriculture production rural life could be sustained, the community set the moral tone and the church was highly regarded as “the small farmers of Luogh have allegiances to all these communities” (p.26). What Arensberg and Kimball chose to see was an idyllic Ireland. However they failed to see that between 1930- 1934 the small time farmers where disappearing rapidly, as they were selling off their land to thy neighbours and emigrating to England or America (Gibbon1962).

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Brody (1973) discovered that a dramatic change occurred in the family system. The family was

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