The 1958 economic policy shift launched a move towards increasing internationalization and – to use a word not yet in use back then – globalization for Ireland. To be sure, Ireland had long been an open economy, but one whose international economic relationships were predominantly with Britain and its former empire (and, for migration, with the United States).
Since independence, both domestic politics and the international economic and military environment had encouraged higher barriers to trade and investment. Now these were to be progressively dismantled as Ireland opened up to a wider and deeper engagement with the global economy.