Politics, Economy and Society: Irish Developmentalism, 1958-2008
12th March 2009
Research Building, University College Dublin,
All Welcome-No Fee
Session One 9am – 10am: Governance and Public Administration
Chair Dr Andreas Hess
MacCarthaigh, Muiris (IPA) and Hardiman, Niamh (UCD), Breaking with or building on the past? Reforming Irish public administration: 1958-2008
Barry, Frank (TCD), Interest-Group Politics and Irish External Trade Policy Over the Last Half-Century: A tale told without recourse to heroes
Brownlow, Graham (QUB), Fabricating Economic Development
Session Two 10.15am – 11.15am: Political Culture
Chair Dr Andreas Hess
Fanning, Bryan (UCD), From Developmental Ireland to ‘Migration Nation’
Girvin, Brian (Glasgow), Before the Celtic Tiger: Change without modernisation in Ireland 1959-1987
White, Timothy (Xavier), From preventing the future to forgetting the past: Irish political culture in the 21st century
Session Three 11.30am – 12.30pm: Political Parties
Chair Professor Michael Laffan
Murray, Thomas Patrick (UCD), Development and non-decisions: The curious case of socio-economic rights, 1958-89
Murphy, Gary (DCU), Fianna Fail, Irish sovereignty and the European question
Purseil, Niamh (UCD), Lying awake, worrying about the unemployed: politics and inertia in the 1950s
Lunch 12.30pm – 1.30pm
Session Four 1.30pm – 3pm: Economic Development
Chair Dr. Donal de Buitleir
Walsh, P.P. (UCD) and Whelan, Ciara (UCD), The Political Economy of Industrial Development in Ireland, 1958-2008
Durkan, Joseph (UCD), Preventing the future: The 1950s as the nadir of protectionism
McDowell, Moore (UCD) and Thom, Rodney (UCD), Ireland’s exchange rate policy, 1958-1998
Murray, Peter (NUIM) Educational developmentalists divided? Patrick Cannon, Patrick Hillery and the economics of education in the early 1960s
Session Five 3.15pm – 4.45pm: Politics and Society
Chair: Professor Michael Gallagher
Kissane, Bill (LSE) Comparing Ireland and Finland
Farrington, Christopher (UCD) The strange transformation of Irish nationalism in the late 20th century
Todd, Jennifer (UCD) The evolution of Irish nationalism: The northern dimension
Coakley, John (UCD), How significant is Catholic unionism in Northern Ireland?
Keynote Lecture 5pm – 6pm
Chair: Professor Louden Ryan
Professor Tom Garvin (UCD), Dublin Opinion, 1948-1962
2 replies on “Conference: Politics, Economy and Society: Irish Developmentalism, 1958-2008”
Looks like a really great conference Paul, and a fitting tribute to Tom Garvin
Remains to be seen whether it will be a great conference.
One thing that strikes me is that economists in Ireland have been to the fore in addressing economic issues starting from the foundation of the SSISI, groups during the 1950s which led to the ERI now ESRI being founded, during the 1980s with DEW Kenmare sessision and most recently with this web-site.
The same cannot be said of the political scientists. These has stuck to two themes 1) describing what is there led initially by Basil Chubb 2) high journalism in terms of analysis elections, boundary changes etc, new electoral systems. (I am leaving political philosophy out of this) I cannot think of any consistent body of work outlining new ways of governing ourselves, along the lines of work initiated by public servants on public service reform eg. setting up the IPA during the 1950s, the Devlin Report of the 1960s, TLAC, the recent OECD report. Nor do the lawyers appear to have much taste for engaging in promoting this kind of discussion. During the post 1970s oil crisis shock, Denmark made some radical changes in how it governed itself. France declares yet another republic every few generations, usually in response to a crisis. In Ireland, Freedom of Information was introduced by en economist in response to revelations from the Beef Tribunal. But I do not recall any consistent defence by political scientists of FoI when the public service successfully limited it over the years, starting after the 2002 election. The Ombudsman (did the political science community propose and argue consistently for the creation of this office?) has been virtually alone in defending FoI.
Perhaps this conference is a harbinger of more engagement by the political science community in raising debate on how we govern ourselves, what kinds of institutions we now need, how power is acquired/exercised/controlled/transferred, the way in which institutions determine who gets what, when. There are other ways of doing these things. It has been clear for some time that we, citizens of a Republic, with a written constitution, need to look again at these matters.