State, politics and demography: The case of Irish emigration, 1921–71¹

This paper is based on research supervised by Dr Liam Kennedy of The Queen's University of Belfast I am much indebted to Dr Kennedy for his advice and guidance. I would also like to thank the editors and anonymous referees for their constructive comments.

Abstract

Emigration is a central feature of the economic, political and social history of independent Ireland and numerous econometric analyses of Irish emigration have investigated both the reasons for and the impact of this movement of population out of Ireland. However, even though the state and political response to Irish emigration is of particular interest, little work has been done on this subject. The aims of this article are to highlight the various strands of discourse within the Irish political and administrative elite, to outline the policy of the Irish state in relation to emigration and explain how this changed over time and finally, to analyse the importance of emigration as an issue in the politics of independent Ireland.

Notes

This paper is based on research supervised by Dr Liam Kennedy of The Queen's University of Belfast I am much indebted to Dr Kennedy for his advice and guidance. I would also like to thank the editors and anonymous referees for their constructive comments.