THE ULSTER CONFLICT Development Authority had been set up in 1949 to canvass abroad for investment in Irish industrialization, but it did not begin to have much success until 1958 when acts were passed which minimized the effect of protectionist legislation on the transfer of productive foreign capital to Eire. In 1963 National Industrial Economic Council was established on the initiative of the government. lts membership was composed of representatives of trades unions, employers' organizations and the State semi-autonomous corporations. lts task was to draw up guidelines for industrial development. After the rejection of Britain and Eire's joint application for membership of the E.E.C., the essential unity of their economic structures became obvious in their common strategy of turning to multinational capital for their salvation. Similar economic policies were also being tried in Ulster under the direction of a new prime minister, Terence O'Neill, who was regarded by sorne as merely a mouthpiece for technocrats in the civil service. On the basis of a mass of reports on the economic state of the province, a new economic policy was propounded which accepted the decline of the province's traditional and aime to create a modern economic infrastructure and a series of growth-centres which, together with lavish grants would make the North very attractive to foreign capital. As part of the plan it was decided to create a new city in North Armagh, to build a new road network and to start a new university in Coleraine. The plan demanded good relations with the trade unions and O'Neill soon cleared out of the way all the difficulties invvolved in setting up an employer-labour-government economic council. In the end the strategy paid off and big international combines like Michelin, Goodyear, Du Pont, Enkalon, ICI and Courtaulds were attracted to the province. Eastern Ulster became a major centre of the artificial fibre industry. This had an effect on the traditional power balance in Ulster since it shifted economic power from the old family firms to the new "foreign" firms which did not operate the old Orange system of discriminatory employment, and in fact employed a lot of mainly Catholic semi-skilled or femal labour since the main investment was in machinery. This had the effect of creating a certain sense of insecurity amomg Protestant' -working class men. Similar successes had followed the Irish Republic' s parallel economic strategy. By March 1965 234 new foreign enterprises 65 5
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