They provided hard-hitting commentary on events during one of the most troubled periods in Irish history and included original caricature portraits of politicians like Michael Collins, Eamon de Valera and Edward Carson.

BBC: Cartoons that courted controversy

In the 1960s Ireland's heavily agricultural economy, almost wholly dependent on exports to Britain, was only just emerging from the misguided protectionism that since the 1930s had been the main plank of Eamon De Valera's ill-advised economic policy.

ECONOMIST: The luck of the Irish

Fianna Fail's Eamon De Valera, whose 1937 constitution created the presidency, took part in the 1916 Easter Rising against the British but as prime minister he was also responsible for the execution of IRA members who endangered the new Irish state.

BBC: Irish presidency: candidates go from sinner to saint