Cultivating ‘the heavies or opinion-forming press’: nation branding, Irish economic development and the British press, 1958–1966

ABSTRACT The transition from economic protectionism to free trade in the late-1950s saw the Irish government embark on a project to improve the state’s image abroad. Up to that point, the state had endured a tempestuous relationship with British newspapers and the adoption of free trade necessitated a new rapport to encourage positive coverage of the industrialisation project. The key components of this strategy were the courting of British newspapers through state sponsorship of special supplements, facilitating visits by British journalists to industrial sites, and providing interview access to senior ministers. Such actions constituted the state’s first exercise in nation branding and represented a sea change in how it interacted with British media. This article offers an analysis of this project to project an image of a modern, industrial Ireland for overseas consumption. It finds that the project was only partly successful: while much coverage highlighted the state’s economic modernisation, this was often accompanied by commentary that was critical of the lack of social change. It also finds that the tensions present in this initial nation branding project also characterised later nation branding projects.