Introduction

The introduction sets the framework for the co-edited collection by reinterpreting Ireland’s road to European Economic Community membership between 1945 and 1973. It shifts the focus from Dublin to the original Six member states and EEC institutions. It situates Irish policy in the context of the ECSC, EEC and Euratom’s emergence as innovative supranational projects whose common policies, institutions and common external tariff constrained and reoriented non‑members such as Ireland. Drawing on governmental and diplomatic archives from Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, West Germany and the EEC, the collection reconstructs how these ‘gatekeepers’ assessed Ireland’s economic backwardness, dependence on the UK, military neutralism and cultural identity when deciding on enlargement. By recovering European debates about Irish admissibility, the chapters challenge state‑centred and applicant‑driven narratives, and show how evolving views in the Council and Commission shaped Ireland’s long, uneven transition from reluctant peripheral agriculture exporter to a self‑consciously “European Republic”.